Marks & Spencer, leading store operator announces 13 weeks to 1 April 2006 were +9.1 percent in total with general merchandise +9.9 percent. Within this clothing was +8.5 percent and home +24.0 percent.
Full price sales of general merchandise were +11.6 percent compared with +5.3 percent last quarter. The adjustment for the timing of Easter (March 2005 vs April 2006) would have added around 0.8 percent to both general merchandise and food sales.
UK sales for the 52 weeks to 1 April 2006 were +3.4 percent in total with general merchandise level on the year and food +7.0 percent. Within this clothing was flat and home +0.8 percent.
This is a strong performance. In general merchandise we continue to focus on better buying, better values and better styling.
All are pleased with the customer response to our newly refurbished stores and plan to roll out the programme across the chain. As a consequence, we have reassessed the useful economic lives of some of our existing assets to reflect their earlier replacement. This will give rise to accelerated depreciation of around £26m in 2005/06.
After taking into account-accelerated depreciation, we expect profit before tax for 2005/06 to be in the range of £745m to £755m. This expected range also takes into account a one-off discretionary bonus to our customer assistants of £20m, which will take expected bonus payments for the year to around £70m.
Marks & Spencer have over 400 stores located throughout the UK, this includes largest store at Marble Arch, London. In addition, the Company has 150 stores worldwide, including over 130 franchise businesses, operating in 30 countries.
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
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