Simply Food 'exceeds expectations' in growth
The food retailer performs “ahead of expectations” as Marks and Spencer group sales increase by 0.4% to £10.3 billion in the past year.
There were 62 new Simply Food stores opened last year, as the company increases its planned number of new stores from 200 to 250 in the three years to March 2017.
Marc Bolland, Chief Executive Officer of M&S, said, “We made good progress in three of our four key priorities for the year. In Food, we had an outstanding year in a difficult market.”
“We are transforming M&S into a stronger, more agile business – putting the right infrastructure, capabilities and talent in place to drive our strategic priorities.”
The company said that it expects its food business to see strong sales growth and modest gross margin opportunity in the coming years.
“We expect the UK food market to remain challenging but we are well positioned with a differentiated product offer and a store format that caters for the changes in customer shopping habits. Delivery of our new stores will help drive sales growth over the coming year,” the company said.
