M&S sees rise in sales

Marks and Spencer Group plc half year results for 26 weeks ended 26 September 2015 show that the retailer noted surge in sales to £ 5 billion at 1.4%. Marc Bolland, Chief Executive said, “We delivered good underlying profit growth in the first half and made strong progress against our key priorities. In General Merchandise we decided to improve profitability by focusing on gross margin, delivering another significant increase, which in part resulted in slightly lower sales. As a consequence of good performance and strong cash generation we have decided to increase our dividend.”

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M&S.com sales were up 34.2% with growth across all key metrics. As a result of higher than planned sourcing gains and lower discounting, the company increased the full year gross margin guidance from 200 to 250bps. UK operating costs were up 2.2% in line with expectations and our full year guidance remains unchanged at +4%. Overall, UK operating profit was up 14.6% to £ 306.2 million. International sales were down 0.9% to £ 506.6 million with operating profit down to £ 24.7 million.

Marks and Spencer plc is a major British multinational retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London. It specializes in the selling of clothing, home products, etc.