Third quarter sales, constant currency
GBPm Change vs 20/21 % Change vs 19/20 %
Food 1,915 10.0 12.4
Clothing & Home 1,084 37.7 3.2
TotalUK 2,999 18.6 8.9
International 272 17.4 5.1
Group 3,272 18.5 8.6
Memo:
Clothing & Home online 361 2.3 50.8
Food ex hospitality and franchise
1,706 6.7 16.4
The impact of Covid in 2020/21 renders comparisons to the prior year less meaningful. To aid understanding, throughout this document the comparative period in commentary relates to the 13 weeks to
'Trading over the Christmas period has been strong, demonstrating the continued improvements we've made to product and value. Clothing & Home has delivered growth for the second successive quarter, supported by robust online and full price sales growth. Food has maintained its momentum, outperforming the market over both 12 and 24 months. The market continues to be impacted by the headwinds and tailwinds that we reported in the first half, but I remain encouraged that our transformation plan is now driving improved performance.'
Food sales increased 12.4%, with sales excluding hospitality and franchise up 16.4%. Retail parks and Simply Food stores continued to outperform. Encouragingly, the larger basket sizes we saw in the first half continued through the Christmas period as customers used M&S for more of their everyday shopping. As a result, M&S was the fastest growing major store-based Food retailer in the period. The business generated its highest ever Christmas sales with December growth in line with the performance for the quarter. In addition, although not included in these numbers, M&S products performed strongly on Ocado.com, representing c.30% of baskets in December.
Clothing & Home sales increased 3.2%. Full price sales grew by 45% as we maintained our trusted value trading stance, reducing the amount of product sold on promotion by 66% and stock into sale by 21% compared to 2019/20. Online sales continued to be strong, with growth of 50.8% supported by substantial expansion of in-store fulfilment. Store sales were down 10.8% on 2019/20 with retail parks up, continuing to outperform stores in city centres.
International sales increased 5.1%, with online sales more than doubling. Performance was driven by Clothing & Home growth in the
During the period, the Group further strengthened its balance sheet and liquidity position. We repaid the
In November, we indicated that we expected the strong trading we had seen in the early part of the quarter to be sustained. As a result of our performance in the balance of the period, we are more confident of our ability to deliver the increased guidance we set, and now expect full year profit before tax and adjusting items of at least
We will report full year results for the 52 weeks ended
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