Marks and Spencer's has suffered a setback from it's recent revival after the company reported a fall in non-food sales.
Like-for-like sales for general merchandise, which includes clothing, fell by 0.4% in the 13 weeks to June 27th, which the retailer labelled as a "challenging" quarter. However, like-for-like food sales rose 0.3% in “another excellent quarter” which included the launch of 700 new lines.
That was compared to the previous quarter which saw growth of 0.7%, M&S's best performance for nearly four years.
Marc Bolland, chief executive, said: "We continue to make progress against our key priorities. Our Food business did very well in a difficult market. In General Merchandise, sales were broadly level on last year and we are on track to deliver the planned increase in gross margin. M&S.com performance was very strong, with customers appreciating all the improvements to our website."
