Marks and Spencer has revealed another quarter of falling sales in its non-food general merchandise division, the 11th quarter in a row they have fallen.
In their Q4 results which were released this morning, the retailer said sales of non-food products, spanning clothing, footwear and homewares, at stores open over a year fell 0.6% in the 13 weeks to March 29.
However, there was good news on the food front for the British retailer, with sales rising 0.1% in the 13 week period.
M&S chief executive Marc Bolland said the company's food business "outperformed the market once again".
Adjusting for the later timing of Easter this year, M&S said its like-for-like food sales were up 1.8%, with total sales up 4.2%.
It marked the 18th consecutive quarter of growth in the retailer's food division, which came despite heavy discounting as pressure from rivals grew.
Most analysts still expect M&S's pre-tax profits to fall 6% to £623 million when annual results are published on 20 May.
It will mean M&S will have been overtaken for the first time by rival Next - a relative upstart at 32 years old - which last month announced profits of £695 million.
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling
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