Retailer Marks and Spencer (M&) maintained its recent recovery today after reporting another sharp pick-up in quarterly trading figures.
For the 13 weeks to July 1 like-for-like sales rose 8.2pc compared to the same period last year. Like-for-like sales of general merchandise jumped 10.5pc while food gained 5.8pc.
Chief executive Stuart Rose said the company was gaining market share across all areas of its business, save children’s wear .
While the figures have been helped by comparisons with a weak performance last year, Stuart Rose still described the outcome as “encouraging”.
Mr Rose has continually declined to call the turnaround at the retail giant a “recovery”, insisting that growing profits and sales at Christmas is the key.
He said, “We continue to focus on improving product, service and the refurbishment of our store portfolio, 42 of which are currently under development.”
And he added, “We are creating 4000 new jobs in our stores to satisfy extra demand and the new space coming on stream.
“Despite the challenging trading environment, we are confident that we can continue to drive the business profitably.”
A spokeswoman for the company said no specific breakdown of where the new jobs would be created had been drafted yet, but she said Scotland would get 400 new posts.
M&S said it continued to increase market share, with the figure for clothing and footwear improving to 10pc in the 12 weeks to May 28, compared with 9.3pc a year earlier. In food, the company’s share in the 12 weeks to June 18 rose to 4.1pc, from 3.5pc.
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