The UK's largest high street chain Marks and Spencer has joined Tesco in announcing a sharp Christmas downturn.
The chain said its general merchandise sales fell 5.8 per cent in the past 13 weeks.
As reported, Tesco today slashed its prices and announced it would shut 43 unprofitable stores and its head office, cut jobs and sell-off large chunks of its business to save cash after the worst year in its history.
M&S said it struggled in the run-up to Christmas because its new online distribution centre failed to cope with demand, resulting in no next day deliveries and longer waits for customers.
However the chain made good progress in three of its four key priorities for the year: food growth, general merchandise and cash generation, a statement said.
Marc Bolland, M&S chief executive, remained positive.
He said: M&S had a very good Christmas in Food. We delivered record Christmas sales, strongly outperforming the market.
"We had a difficult quarter in General Merchandise, dominated by unseasonal conditions and an unsatisfactory performance in our e-commerce distribution centre. We maintained our focus on General Merchandise gross margin, with guidance unchanged.
"I'd like to thank all of our colleagues for their exceptional hard work and commitment over the key Christmas period."
