M&S returns to non-food sales growth after four-year wait

British retailer Marks & Spencer posted its best quarterly non-food sales performance in four years, putting behind it the online distribution problems that ruined its Christmas and buying its chief executive more time to secure a recovery.

Shares in Britain's biggest clothing retailer rose as much as 6.3 percent to a seven-year high after it said sales of general merchandise, spanning clothing, footwear and homewares, rose 0.7 percent in the past quarter at stores open more than a year.

CEO Marc Bolland highlighted "high single-digit" like-for-like sales growth at both its relatively upmarket Autograph and Limited clothing brands, and noted positive press reviews of a 199 pounds ($295) suede skirt that will hit stores this month and is attracting high levels of pre-registration.

The outcome was the first time in 15 quarters M&S has not posted a fall in non-food like-for-like sales and was also better than analysts' average forecast of down 1.2 percent.

It followed a third-quarter slump of 5.8 percent, reflecting unseasonal weather in October and November and disruption at its e-commerce distribution centre at Castle Donington in central England.

Bolland, CEO since 2010, has spent billions of pounds addressing decades of under-investment at M&S, overseeing a redesign of products, stores, logistics and its website.

But a new clothing team he set up in 2012 has so far failed to deliver a sustained increase in sales. When products have proven a hit, it has often struggled to replenish supplies fast enough before shopper interest subsided.

However, a food business outperforming the wider grocery market and improving profit margins both in non-food and food have kept investors onside, with M&S shares rising 44 percent over the last six months.