M&S Christmas sales growth driven by food delivery service

Tuesday, 10 January 2012 09:57

Marks & Spencer saw its Christmas trade boosted by strong performance from its food delivery service, according to a new trading report.

The statistics were released to cover the 13 weeks to December 31st 2011 and revealed mixed results for the high street giant.

Total UK sales excluding VAT were up by 1.8 per cent, while like-for-like sales increased by just 0.5 per cent.

However, food sales were up 4.5 per cent as customers chose to continue to treat their families to special festive fare.

Furthermore, 22.4 per cent more produce was sold through direct delivery thanks to an extension of next-day services, while the Christmas Food to Order service online also proved popular and contributed to 12 per cent more orders.

This helped to offset relatively poor sales in clothing (up 1.1 per cent) and a dip in homewares by 13.3 per cent, which was blamed on Marks & Spencer no longer selling electricals.

Chief executive Marc Bolland said: "Marks & Spencer performed well in a challenging trading environment.

"We expect trading conditions to remain challenging. We continue to be cautious about the outlook for the year ahead."

Earlier this month, John Lewis revealed its total sales were £596 million in the five weeks to December 31st 2011, up by 9.3 per cent on 2010.

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