Marks and Spencer chief executive Marc Bolland today (7 July) insisted “quality and innovation” had helped drive rising food sales at the UK retailer.
Bolland, just nine weeks into the job at M&S, said the retailer had seen its basket size grow within its food division despite footfall staying constant during the 13 weeks to 3 July.
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“Our footfall was relatively flat [but] the basket was positive. That’s good news for us. People are buying into quality and innovation and that’s typically the driver we’ve had with 570 products introduced [during the quarter],” Bolland said.
M&S is planning to launch around 1,700 food lines during the current fiscal year, the Dutchman added.
Bolland was speaking to analysts after M&S posted a set of numbers that included a 1.5% increase in food like-for-like sales.
The retailer said its food like-for-likes meant it had “outperformed” the market as consumers “returned to quality”.
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By GlobalDataHowever, Bolland cautioned that M&S was up against “comparatives that were a bit easier” during the first quarter than the retailer expects to see in the third and fourth quarters of this financial year.
John Dixon, who heads up M&S’s food business, said the company was “pleased” with its performance in food. “We’ve now had a number of quarters of positive like-for-like growth,” he said.
Shares in M&S were down 2.6% at 343.4p at 17:12 BST this afternoon.
