Green with envy

11 April 2006 By John Foley Follow @johnsfoley

The UK retailer s sales and earnings are motoring ahead mainly at the expense of less fortunate peers. M&S shares have now topped the price set by raider Philip Green by almost 50% yet could still have further to run.

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Marks & Spencer said likeforlike sales for the quarter ending April 1 grew 6.8%. Sales of general merchandise such as clothing grew 8.2% year on year, compared with broadly flat sales in the previous quarter. Food sales grew 5.6%.

The UK retailer said profit before tax would be £745m£755m for the year just ended, in line with consensus estimates. Stripping out the effects of an extra £26m depreciation charge and £10m in staff bonuses, pretax profits were around 5% above expectations.

On Monday the British Retail Consortium warned that sales on the UK high street were broadly flat for the quarter, and that there had been no sign of an expected upturn in consumer spending.

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