Marks & Spencer said its fashion turnaround needs more time after slumping to its ninth back-to-back quarter of falling clothing and homeware sales.
The retailer’s like-for-like general merchandise sales dropped 1.3 per cent between July and September on a year earlier, as a revamp of its autumn/winter clothing range failed to ignite trading.
Heavy discounting and the cost of the star-studded womenswear overhaul helped drag underlying pre-tax profits 8.9 per cent lower to £261.6 million during the 26 weeks to the end of September.
Its general merchandise sales decline was slightly better than City hopes and improved on a 1.6 per cent first-quarter drop.
Chief executive, former Morrisons boss Marc Bolland, said the 129-year-old chain was showing “continuous improvement” in clothing, adding that the new range was only in stores for three weeks of the period.
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