Marks and Spencer Group Plc (LON:MKS) has announced its Christmas trading – 13 weeks to 28 December 2024.
| Third quarter sales growth | £m | Total Sales % | Like-for-Like (LFL) % |
| Food | 2,581 | 8.7 | 8.9 |
| Clothing, Home & Beauty | 1,305 | 1.0 | 1.9 |
| Total UK and ROI | 3,886 | 5.9 | 6.4 |
| International | 178 | (2.8) | n/a |
| Group | 4,064 | 5.6 | n/a |
Food and Clothing, Home & Beauty at reported sales. International and Group sales at constant currency.
Ocado Retail Sales are not included in this statement and are reported separately by Ocado Group.
Stuart Machin, Marks and Spencer Group Chief Executive said: “This was another good Christmas for M&S, building on a strong performance in the prior year. We sustained trading momentum with like-for-like sales up 8.9% for Food and 1.9% for Clothing, Home & Beauty. Sales records were broken across the business, with Food recording its biggest day and Clothing, Home & Beauty online its biggest week, but we’re not complacent – as a growth business it’s our job to break records.
In Food, our focus on quality, innovation and trusted value translated into strong sales and market share growth, with M&S the top performing store-based grocery retailer over the period. 500 new lines were launched, and sales of new Christmas products grew 14%. Core category sales grew strongly as more customers ticked off their whole shopping list at M&S. There were a few growing pains as we delivered our biggest ever volumes, particularly in smaller stores, reaffirming the opportunity to accelerate transformation of the Food supply chain and go even faster on store renewal and rotation.
In Clothing, Home & Beauty our focus on style, quality and value saw us grow sales and take market share in a declining market, with womenswear and menswear performing well. M&S partywear sales were up on last year but it was our heartland categories of denim and knitwear that outperformed. Although Home & Beauty grew, the development of these categories is nascent, and they remain areas of opportunity. Online grew strongly and new and renewed stores continued to outperform expectations, but store sales overall were down 1.5% in part due to weather. The opportunity for Clothing, Home & Beauty in 2025 is to continue offering customers the best style, quality and value, but marry that with a focus on turning stock faster, further reducing options and optimising store range and space. As in Food, these opportunities simply make us more resolute to go faster on our plans to modernise the supply chain and utilise digital and technology to maximise our online potential.
The external environment remains challenging, with cost and economic headwinds to navigate, but there is much within our control. At M&S, we stay close to our customers and their needs, and with that in mind our investment in trusted value, along with great quality, style and innovation remains our priority.
Transforming M&S is a marathon, not a sprint, and we go into 2025 shifting up a gear and raring to go as we accelerate the scale and pace of change.
Thank you to all of our customers for shopping with M&S this Christmas and to all of our colleagues for their extraordinary effort delivering M&S’s busiest ever peak.”
Food sales increased 8.7%, with LFL sales up 8.9%. M&S sustained UK volume growth of 6.6% from the first half into the Christmas trading period driven by increased customers and transactions, and was the top performing store-based grocery retailer in volume and value over the period1. New and renewal stores exceeded expectations. Initial supply chain investment supported improved availability, but increased volumes and associated stock flow challenges led to slightly higher seasonal markdown as we reset for the new year.
Sales growth continued to be driven by investment in quality and value, and 500 new lines in the period. Core categories, such as meat, produce, grocery and in-store bakery grew double-digits as customers chose M&S for more of their everyday shopping. There was a strong performance from innovation and quality upgrades in areas such as Gastropub, as customers chose M&S as an affordable restaurant quality alternative to eating out. ‘Remarksable’ sales also grew 14% as we continue to invest in trusted value.
Clothing, Home & Beauty sales increased 1.0%, with LFL sales up 1.9%, ahead of the market2 in challenging conditions. Underlying sales grew 2.6% adjusted for the impact of the exit of the bulky furniture category. Within this, online sales were up 11.7% driven by customer growth and improved availability and represented 34% of sales in the period vs 31% last year. There remains work to do to right size the store estate and invest in online growth, but new and renewal stores continued to outperform expectations. While stock into Sale was broadly in line with last year, we have an opportunity to reduce option count and drive full price sell through.
International sales were down 2.8%, largely driven by continued challenging market conditions in India and the phasing of franchise shipments. Reset actions are underway and we remain confident in the growth opportunity over the medium term.
Outlook. As we enter the new year, the outlook for economic growth, inflation and interest rates is uncertain and the business faces higher costs from well-documented increases in taxation. However there remain substantial opportunities and we are focused on what is within our control, as we reshape M&S for growth. Therefore, as indicated at the half year results in November, we are confident of making further progress in the remainder of the year.
