Marks & Spencer's Irish unit is on course to increase annual sales to nearly €600 million this year following a 14 per cent rise in revenues in its first fiscal quarter.

The chain at large yesterday posted its weakest quarterly sales growth for almost two years, but its shares rose 1.42 per cent after analysts said the figures were not as bad as some had feared.

M&S in Ireland is known to have achieved sales of more than €530 million in the year to March.

Neil Hyslop, head of the Irish unit, said food and homewares had been strong performers in the 13 weeks to June. Following a recent store opening in Letterkenny and an extension of the M&S Liffey Valley store, Mr Hyslop said like-for-like sales growth in the quarter stood at 7 per cent.

"Business in the Republic is good. Our numbers are in line with the international numbers so we're looking at 14 per cent in the first quarter. That's a good place to be and there's more to come this year," he said.

"We're opening Tallaght next week and we've Athlone in October so the growth should continue."

M&S does not publicly declare its profits in Ireland but operations here dominate its international unit, which had an operating profit margin of 14 per cent last year. The group blamed overall slowdown in growth on interest rate rises and bad weather in Britain.

Chief executive Stuart Rose said trading would remain tough but said his revival of the iconic chain was "not running out of puff". Shares in the group closed 9p stronger at £6.41 (€9.46) on the London market on hopes that M&S was winning market share from rivals such as Next.

The chain, which is Britain's biggest clothing retailer, said sales at British stores open for more than a year rose 2 per cent in the quarter, down from 3.8 percent seen in the previous quarter.