M&S on Thursday reported positive figures for its festive trading period and while they weren’t spectacular for fashion and beauty, it was clear that the company didn’t face the malaise affecting many other parts of the UK discretionary retail sector.

Overall, total sales for the group increased 5.6% to £4.064 billion. Much of the strength was concentrated in the Food area with an 8.7% increase to £2.581 billion. 

But while in Clothing, Home & Beauty, the rise was only 1% to £1.305 billion, like-for-like sales rose ahead of the market at 1.9%. And underlying sales grew 2.6% adjusted for the impact of the exit of the bulky furniture category. 

Within this, online sales were up 11.7% driven by customer growth and improved availability and represented 34% of sales in the period vs 31% last year. Although online “grew strongly and new and renewed stores continued to outperform expectations”, store sales overall were down 1.5% in part due to bad weather. 

It all meant total sales for the UK and Republic of Ireland were up 5.9% at £3.886 billion, or up 6.4% on a like-for-like basis. 

The weakest performance though was in the company’s international division where sales fell 2.8% to £178 million.

This was attributed to “continued challenging market conditions in India and the phasing of franchise shipments”. But it said “reset actions are under way and we remain confident in the growth opportunity over the medium term”.

The company seemed reasonably pleased with all these figures and CEO Stuart Machin said: “This was another good Christmas for M&S, building on a strong performance in the prior year. We sustained trading momentum with like-for-like sales up. Sales records were broken across the business, with Food recording its biggest day and Clothing, Home & Beauty online its biggest week. But we’re not complacent — as a growth business it’s our job to break records.”

He added that in Clothing, Home & Beauty “our focus on style, quality and value saw us grow sales and take market share in a declining market, with womenswear and menswear performing well”. 

M&S partywear sales were up on last year but it was its “heartland categories” of denim and knitwear that outperformed. And although Home & Beauty grew, “the development of these categories is nascent, and they remain areas of opportunity”.

Machin thinks the opportunity for Clothing, Home & Beauty in 2025 “is to continue offering customers the best style, quality and value, but marry that with a focus on turning stock faster, further reducing options and optimising store range and space”.

While admitting that “the external environment remains challenging, with cost and economic headwinds to navigate,” he said there’s still “much within our control. We stay close to our customers and their needs, and with that in mind our investment in trusted value, along with great quality, style and innovation remains our priority”.

And he concluded by insisting that “transforming M&S is a marathon, not a sprint, and we go into 2025 shifting up a gear and raring to go as we accelerate the scale and pace of change”.