Marks & Spencer (M&S) has announced a 5.6% jump in like-for-like food sales to £2.72bn over the Christmas period, although trading in the retailer’s fashion, home and beauty division suffered a dip.

The company reported a 2.9% drop in this part of the business to £1.27bn, citing “fragile consumer confidence and milder weather”, as it also continues to deal with the fallout of a cyber-attack last year.

M&S, publishing its Q3 results for the 13 weeks to 27 December, said it had seen a record number of customers over Christmas, with underlying food sales rising by 6.6% and UK volume growth reaching 2.3%. This followed the company reaching a historical high 4% market share in November.

The group said the latest performance of its fashion, home and beauty division reflected high street footfall, in addition to the “long tail impact on stock data and management” following last year’s cyber incident.

Across the group, M&S announced total sales of £4.99bn for its Q3 period as the retailer confirmed that its guidance for the full financial year was still unchanged.

Chief executive, Stuart Machin, said: “Food sales were strong and the business continues to outperform, hitting a new market share milestone in the period. We are the UK’s fastest growing grocer for families, reflecting our investment in value and core family staples, and demonstrating progress in our journey to become a shopping list retailer.

“Fashion, home and beauty is getting back on track as we work through the tail end of recovery. Sales overall were slightly down but online performance continued to improve as digital sales recovered. We planned a bigger sale this year, with strong sell-through already making way for our new season lines.

“We enter this new calendar year full of ambition and laser focused on our plan to reshape M&S for further growth.”

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