Why food lovers have returned to M&S – and the items they love the most
M&S has got its mojo back. After years of growth at discounters Aldi and Lidl dominating the news, the retailer has released some startling sales figures. It means that M&S can show the likes of Asda a thing or two about tempting shoppers back down their food aisles.
Food sales increased at M&S by 10.5 per cent over the last quarter, with the like-for-like sales figure, which adjusts for any new stores, up 9.9 per cent. Even allowing for extra shoppers over Christmas, this makes the retailer the top-performing grocer in terms of volume growth, with growth of about 7 per cent.
In fact, we love M&S more than ever. The latest figures from YouGov show that over half of us (50.1 per cent) are positive about Marks & Spencer, up 15 per cent from five years ago. Compare that to our attitude to supermarkets across the board, which is less than 10 per cent positive and a whopping 13 per cent down on five years ago.
Why are shoppers heading back? The second series of ITV’s Inside M&S documentary, with its cheery, hard-working staffers, can’t have hurt. But there’s something more profound going on.
One thing that M&S does have in common with those pesky discounters is less choice. Not quite as sparse as Lidl – where the full range sits at around 2,300 items, while the largest M&S Food Hall will carry around 7,000 – but less than half of Waitrose’s, and a fraction of the number in an out-of-town Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
Could it be that we are fed up with being offered 20 different kinds of tinned tomatoes, and that a choice from half a dozen is less stressful? A curated range, stripped back from the brands, makes for a simpler supermarket life.
And talking of brands, although M&S caved in and started stocking a few other brands 14 years ago (yup, there’s nothing like actual Marmite), its traditional suspicion of any item that doesn’t carry the Marks & Spencer logo is finally paying off. We are ditching branded goods and turning to own-label products in our droves.
If, with its fancy reputation, switching to M&S doesn’t feel like trading down, you’d be dead right. One thing that more than a year of testing products for my Mrs Clay’s Guide to Household Thrift column has shown is that M&S, with products that rank top in almost a third of my taste tests, offers consistently high quality, and the prices are keen.
With standard items like its Everyday tea being the only supermarket version that comes close to Yorkshire Tea, which is nearly three times the price, it’s no surprise to me that its budget “Remarksable” value sales soared by about 18 per cent.
All of this is part of a drive to win us round to doing our big trolley shop at M&S, rather than popping in for just a few top-up items. The company has been investing heavily in out-of-town stores, placing them close to – and in direct competition with – the likes of Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
But while it might be taking tips from the other supermarkets, it is keeping its point of difference. Not everything is cheaper but, by and large, where the price is higher, it’s for a reason. Where other retailers copy brands slavishly, M&S still throws the odd curveball. Take its slender, oblong Jaffa cakes, a thing of elegance and beauty and quite different to McVitie’s. Sure, they cost a few pence more, but they’re the kind of thing you’d serve up without blinking an eye if Queen Camilla dropped in for tea and gossip. It has also just launched a collaboration with the hottest diet going, in the form of gut shots developed with nutrition science company ZOE.
Well done Marks. After flying by the seat of your (trusty) pants for a while, you’ve definitely got your Spark back.
Shopping-list hits
Christmas party food
M&S had its biggest-ever party-food season this Christmas – bagging more than 40 per cent of our spending in that area. More than half a million pigs in blankets flew out of the store, along with 405,000 chicken Kyivs and 290,000 Best Ever prawn toasts.
Turkeys
Meat and poultry in general were big growth areas for M&S in 2023: 2.4 turkeys sold every second ahead of Christmas, and the big winner for an easy life was the Collection British Oakham slow-cooked turkey with stuffing, bacon and turkey gravy, with 195,000 of us putting it on our tables.
Festive treats with a future
M&S ditched free plastic bags in 2008, and now its packaging you’ll want to keep and reuse has scored a hit. Inspired (perhaps) by Fortnum & Mason’s classic musical biscuit tins, Marks sold 725,000 Snowy Night Projector Tins (bearing choc-chip shortbread and gingerbread) and 723,000 Shortbread Light Up Tins. Once their contents have been consumed, the vessels can be rolled out again and again.
The basics
With more out-of-town shops, like the massive Colney branch with a 28,000 sq ft Food Hall, and carefully placed stores like Matlock in Derbyshire’s palatial food-only store, customers are switching to M&S for the big shop. The “Remarksable” range had its biggest year ever with sales increasing 18 per cent; six packs of eggs were up 77 per cent, while we bought more staples like loose bananas and milk, too.
Bread
Fifteen years ago I sat down with the then chairman Stuart Rose and a group of food experts to discuss what was right – and wrong – about M&S food. Former Telegraph columnist Rosa Prince didn’t mince her words: “Your bread is terrible.” The team listened, and Marks now supplies some of the best supermarket bread out there, even if it has a way to go to match real artisan bakery loaves. The result? High bakery growth in 2023 on the back of products like its 30-hour sourdough.
Low-and-no alcohol
Whether we’re all making a choice to be healthier, or designated drivers are tired of being stuck with Coke, low- and no-alcohol drinks have been the hit of the season. M&S was no exception, seeing its biggest ever week of alcohol-free sales in the days leading up to Christmas, in which it sold more than 115,000 bottles and cans. It’s not just a flash in the (booze-free) pan either, as it follows on from a tripling of sales in “Dry July”.
English wine
Proof that English wine has really arrived: M&S sold more English sparkling wine than branded champagne over Christmas – and twice as much English sparkling wine as cava, despite costing more than twice the price. There’s talk of some top-secret plans for a new English launch in April, adding to the 15 English wines Marks already sells.
Gut-friendly goods
Ever keen to stay on trend, last week M&S launched a fruit-flavoured gut shot developed with nutrition science company ZOE. Think Yakult, but with added credibility from ZOE founder Prof Tim Spector. It’s sold over 127,000 bottles so far, and on 8 January the shot outsold the store’s bestselling 500ml bottles of water. It’s not just any microbiome boost, it’s an M&S microbiome boost.
