Irish arm of M&S drags sales down

Marks and Spencer’s underperforming Irish operations helped drag down the retail giant’s international division sales by 2% in the last quarter.

The latest trading update from the British high-street retail chain — which operates 21 shops in Ireland — shows that group sales rose by 0.8% in the fourth quarter of its latest financial year the three months to the end of March.

There was even better progress in the group’s core UK market, with year-on-year sales growth of 1.2% recorded.