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| M&S blames 'unseasonable' weather as clothing sales fall | M&S blames 'unseasonable' weather as clothing sales fall |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Marks and Spencer has reported its 13th consecutive quarterly drop in clothing sales, blaming the "unseasonable conditions in September" for the poor performance. | Marks and Spencer has reported its 13th consecutive quarterly drop in clothing sales, blaming the "unseasonable conditions in September" for the poor performance. |
| The 130-year old retailer said like-for-like general merchandise sales - which are primarily clothing - fell 4% in the second quarter. | The 130-year old retailer said like-for-like general merchandise sales - which are primarily clothing - fell 4% in the second quarter. |
| The drop in general merchandise sales is more than double the 1.5% fall in the first quarter. | The drop in general merchandise sales is more than double the 1.5% fall in the first quarter. |
| Like-for-like food sales rose 0.2%. | Like-for-like food sales rose 0.2%. |
| Again, the performance was much weaker than the 1.7% rise in food sales seen in the first quarter. | |
| Across the M&S group, like-for-like sales fell 0.2% in the three months to 27 September, but were up 1% for the half-year. | |
| Half-year pre-tax profit fell 0.4% to £279.4m, but underlying profits rose 2.3% to £267.6m which was ahead of analysts' expectations. | |
| Online sales at its revamped website, which was re-launched in February, were down 4.6% in the second quarter, but this was an improvement on the 8.1% drop it reported in the previous quarter. | |
| And M&S said sales of womenswear also continued to improve. It did not give a quarterly performance, but said total sales were up 1.3% in the first five months of the year. | |
| M&S chief executive Marc Bolland said he was pleased with its performance despite "a tough market". | |
| "We are pleased with the progress we have made against out key priorities for the year: general merchandise gross margin, improving womenswear, driving food growth and cash generation," he added. | |
| However, he said market conditions continued to be challenging. | |
| "As a result we remain cautious about the outlook for the remainder of the year," he added. | |
| M&S is not the only retailer to blame the unusually warm September for affecting trade. | |
| Clothing retailers H&M and Next have both said that the weather has hit sales. |