Marks & Spencer sales surge as it eyes further growth for beauty in 2025
Marks & Spencer’s sales surged 5.6% in the 13 weeks to 28 December, with further growth opportunities for beauty expected in 2025.
The retailer achieved £4.06 billion in sales for the three month period, just under two-thirds of which came from its food division, which saw its biggest ever trading day during the period.
Food sales grew 8.9% on a like-for-like basis, compared to a 1.9% growth across its clothing, home and beauty departments.
Chief Executive Stuart Machin said the development of home and beauty is "nascent", and they remain areas of opportunity.
It comes as the business continues to upgrade its beauty offer, with updated beauty areas within its new and improved stores, featuring a wide selection of own-brand ranges and major names such as Philip Kingsley, Stila, Origins, L'Occitance and Murad.
"In Clothing, Home & Beauty our focus on style, quality and value saw us grow sales and take market share in a declining market, with womenswear and menswear performing well," he said.
"Online grew strongly and new and renewed stores continued to outperform expectations, but store sales overall were down 1.5% in part due to weather.
"The opportunity for clothing, home and beauty in 2025 is to continue offering customers the best style, quality and value, but marry that with a focus on turning stock faster, further reducing options and optimising store range and space.
"As in food, these opportunities simply make us more resolute to go faster on our plans to modernise the supply chain and utilise digital and technology to maximise our online potential."
Machin described the performance a "another good Christmas for M&S, building on a strong performance in the prior year" but cautioned on challenging market conditions ahead.
"Sales records were broken across the business, with food recording its biggest day and clothing, home and beauty online its biggest week, but we’re not complacent – as a growth business it’s our job to break records.
"The external environment remains challenging, with cost and economic headwinds to navigate, but there is much within our control."
Machin warned before Christmas that measures in the October budget would hit Marks & Spencer’s bottom line to the tune of £120 million, and refused to rule out price rises to offset the extra costs.
The vast majority of sales come from M&S’s UK and Ireland business, which recorded a 6.4% like-for-like sales rise. Its international sales came in at £178 million, a 2.8% drop compared with last year.