Marks & Spencer has reported food sales growth ahead of the market for the first quarter of the year, boosted by excellent like-for-like sales growth and the late Easter period.
Like-for-like sales in the food sector increased by 5.1 per cent during the quarter, the company said in a trading statement, while total food sales (including those from new and redeveloped stores) increased by 8.1 per cent.
The later Easter period in fiscal 2003 (April, rather than March - and therefore Q4 - in 2002) gave a 1.5 per cent boost to food sales, the company said.
The company also posted a 3.9 per cent increase in clothing, footwear and gift sales, but its home department registered a 1.4 per cent decline due to lower promotional sales and a particularly strong performance in 2002.
General sales (i.e. those which do not fall into any of the other categories) were up 3.4 per cent for the quarter, and total group sales advanced 5.4 per cent compared to the previous year.
The company said that the good food performance was also driven by the continued roll-out of the Simply Food format, which M&S is running in partnership with the Compass Group. As the name suggests, the format focuses on food only stores, mainly on railway stations.
Roger Holmes, chief executive, said: "We had a satisfactory first quarter in which we saw an improvement in clothing performance, particularly in June, with good food sales throughout the period.
"Food continues to outperform the market through the on-going development of high quality, innovative products that continue to tempt our customers, together with the strong performance of Simply Food stores which are now opening at the rate of one a week."