Marks & Spencer showed its recovery was continuing apace today with fourth-quarter sales well ahead of analysts' expectations.
The retailer said like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to April 1st grew 6.8 per cent, compared with forecasts around 3.2 per cent.
Shares in the retailer gained 2.8 per cent to trade at 580p on Instinet, before the official market opening. They closed at 564p yesterday, up 64 per cent in the last 12 months.
Like-for-like food sales were up 5.6 per cent compared with forecasts of around 4.8 per cent, while non-food sales shot up 8.2 per cent compared with analysts' expected growth of about 1.6 per cent, according to the company.
For the full year, M&S, with around 400 stores, said it expected to achieve a pretax profit of £745 million (€1.07 billion).
Stuart Rose, chief executive, said the fourth quarter performance was strong and the profit expectations take into account an additional one-off bonus of £20 million (€28 million) to be shared among staff.
Mr Rose, who was parachuted in to defend the company from Philip Green's £9.1 billion bid in 2004, is rebuilding profit margins with improved buying terms and reducing markdowns to deliver a sharp increase in profitability.
He has streamlined ranges, lowered prices and invested more in a hugely successful advertising campaign, and he wants to convert all the retailer's stores over the next four years.
Full year figures will be released on May 23rd.