DE4CC0DE-5FC3-4494-BCBF-4D50B00366B5

Britain's M&S Makes Strong Start To New Year: NielsenIQ

By Dayeeta Das
Share this article
Britain's M&S Makes Strong Start To New Year: NielsenIQ

Marks & Spencer has maintained its position as Britain's fastest growing food retailer, market researcher NielsenIQ said on Tuesday, indicating its turnaround plan is gaining momentum.

It said M&S's sales rose 12.3% year-on-year in the 12 weeks to 29 January, giving it a UK grocery market share of 3.6%, up 0.4 percentage points on the year.

Last month, M&S nudged up its profit outlook after it reported a strong Christmas, and hopes are rising its latest attempt at a turnaround could succeed after decades of false dawns.

Big Four Grocers

NielsenIQ's data showed market leader Tesco was the best performer of Britain's so-called Big Four grocers.

Its 0.3% sales decline significantly outperformed Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons, which had falls of 3.7%, 4.3% and 6.9% respectively.

ADVERTISEMENT

The data echoed figures from rival market researcher Kantar published last week. However, Kantar does not include M&S in its monthly reports.

Weaker Comparative Sales

M&S also had weaker comparative sales numbers than the big four in the same period of 2020-21.

NielsenIQ said overall UK supermarket sales fell 2.9% over the four weeks to Jan. 29.

Comparatives were very tough, as in the same period last year the United Kingdom was in COVID-19 lockdown and sales grew 10.6%.

ADVERTISEMENT

In November of last year, the British retailer performed ahead of forecasts for first-half profit and raised its full-year outlook, adding to evidence that its latest attempt at an elusive turnaround is delivering.

The company reported said it made profit before tax and adjusting items of £269.4 million (€315.6 million) in the six months to 2 October, compared to analyst forecasts of between £205 million and £264 million.

News by Reuters, edited by ESM. For more Retail news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
Get the week's top grocery retail news

The most important stories from European grocery retail direct to your inbox every Thursday

Processing your request...

Thanks! please check your email to confirm your subscription.

By signing up you are agreeing to our terms & conditions and privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.