City thumbs up to M&S's performance Analysts agreed Marks and Spencer's dark days are over as it released its latest trading statement this week. Like-for-like sales were up 10.6% on last year while food sales increased 6%, or 4.5% on a like-for-like basis, for the 11 weeks to March 30. Analyst Mark Charnak of ING said results were most impressive on non food. But he added: "It looks like recovery is continuing on foods too, given the competition M&S is up against. "Food hasn't started to fly like clothing has, but then it did not get caned when clothing did. M&S's halo had started to slip, but now it is back on again." One analyst warned that M&S must guard against "other retailers stealing its ideas when it comes to food innovation". M&S said its food performance was against an exceptionally strong quarter last year of plus 8% due to customers' "flight to quality" during foot and mouth. Within the total sales figures, clothing, footwear and gifts sales rose 16.5% while home sales were up 6.2%. Chairman and CEO Luc Vandevelde said M&S still had a long way to go, but expressed confidence that by continuously driving improvements for customers it could secure the recovery. He said: "I am delighted our customers continue to react positively to the improvements we are making to the appeal of our clothing and to the store environment." M&S's preliminary results will be announced on May 21. {{NEWS }}

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