M&S posted a strong Christmas performance as food sales increased 10.5% to £2.3bn and it “served more customers than ever before”.
Like-for-like sales were up 9.9% over the festive period, while the retailer’s boss Stuart Machin said it “led the market on volume growth” with a 7% increase across the quarter.
Categories including meat, poultry, produce, grocery and in-store bakery delivered strong growth, which was supported by innovation and quality upgrades.
Machin said that while these core categories “grew strongly,” renewal stores, which cater to larger basket shops, performed “particularly well as more customers looked to us for more of their full shop”.
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He added: “Underpinning the strong performance in both businesses is our commitment to trusted value – unbeatable M&S quality at the best possible price.”
In the quarter, M&S inflated below the market and saw sales of its ‘Remarksable’ value range increase 18%.
Looking ahead, Machin said the grocer will enter 2024 “with a spring in our step, but clear eyed on the near-term challenges”.
M&S expects economic growth to remain “uncertain” and faces additional cost increases from “higher than anticipated” wage and business rates related cost inflation.
However, Machin added: “We are determined to deliver our objective of driving 1% growth in market share in both businesses and to up the pace of our transformation: keeping a relentless focus on trusted value; accelerating our store rotation and renewal plans; doubling down on our supply chain programmes to improve availability and lower costs; and resetting our data, digital and technology strategy to unlock benefits in future years.
“Our vision is to be the most trusted retailer, doing the right thing for our customers, with quality products at the heart of everything we do, and we are just at the beginning of what we can achieve. Lots done, lots to do, lots of opportunity ahead.”
