Struggling British retailer Marks & Spencer reported its fourth straight quarter of falling sales, with food sales slipping slightly in the last two weeks of September, but clothing holding steady.
The poor performance was no surprise, coming on the heels of last month's trading update, which showed plunging sales as the store chain lost market share to high-street rivals like Next and supermarkets like Tesco.
New chief executive Stuart Rose is under pressure to turn around the British high-street icon after seeing off retail tycoon Philip Green and his £9 billion sterling takeover approach during the summer.
M&S said total sales for the 12 weeks to October 2 fell 5.5%, stripping out the effect of new and closed stores, compared to the 12 weeks to October 4 last year. Clothing and home sales stayed down 7.7% - in line with the September trading update - but food sales slipped a further 0.6% in the last two weeks of September, making a 2.6% fall for the 12-week period.
Market watchers said the two-week gap between last month's update and the new figures was too short to judge the performance of Rose, an experienced retailer who was parachuted in to defend the company against Green's advances.
The clothing and food-store chain gave a crumb of comfort by saying it expected first-half profits to be in line with market forecasts. M&S said it expected first-half profits before tax and exceptional items would be in a £285-295m range, compared with £325m for the same period last year.
It said it expected to book an exceptional charge of around £80m for the period, including the costs of closing down its Lifestore flagship outlet in Gateshead, judged by Rose as too contemporary for customers.
The huge store, which included a minimalist house designed by architect John Pawson, whose other works include the Calvin Klein store in New York, was divided into areas like 'Relax', 'Play' and 'Celebrate', instead of traditional home furnishings departments.
