Marks & Spencer beat expectations to report a fourth quarter rise with food sales contributing significantly to the growth.
M&S said that total like-for-like sales rose 4.8 per cent in the 13 weeks to 27 March. The company's food sales rose by 2.6 per cent across the group and by 1.8 per cent in the UK, despite a direct attack from Waitrose’s essentials range in the last year.
Its 78,000 staff at the upmarket retailer will share an £80 million bonus after M&S ended the year with better-than-expected same store sales of 5.1 per cent in the UK.
The supermarket’s online brand, M&S Direct, saw sales rise 48 per cent following the extension of its Shop Your Way ordering service to more than 300 stores.
But sales abroad slowed with Sir Stuart Rose, in his final trading statement for the company, blaming a 5.9 per cent fall on currency issues and economic problems in Ireland and Greece.
Some 50,000 of its staff are customer assistants, who will receive between £200 and £500 each depending on hours worked. This leaves between £55m and £70m to share between remaining staff.
Rose said: “We have weathered the immediate impact of the recession but remain cautious about the outlook for 2010-11, given the current challenging environment. We hope that after the election there will be greater clarity on economic policy and how this will impact our customers individually.”
Rose will become non-executive chairman at the M&S annual meeting on 31 July and leave the company next March, a few months ahead of the original deadline of July 2011.
Former Morrisons boss Marc Bolland will take over from Rose on 1 May, receiving a “golden hello” of £15m in the process.
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