10 January 2008, 16:47 PM
  • In the wake of dire Christmas sales, Marks & Spencer has gone back to the drawing board to target the fast-growing "foodie" market - with plans to sell less ready meals and a wider range of basic ingredients.

With M&S reporting the worst quartely sales figures in two years, figures show that sales growth in the group’s food division stalled in the crucial Christmas trading period, in sharp contrast to the 4.1pc growth in like-for-like sales announced by rival Waitrose this week.

The decision to sell a wider range of basic ingredients will see Steven Esom, M&S’s director of foods, go head-to-head with Waitrose, his former employer.

The new range, which will start to appear in stores this week, includes herbs, spices, sauces, bread and cake mixes, ready-to-use stocks, dried and tinned vegetables and rice, pulses and noodles. “From now on customers looking to cook from scratch and wanting to buy all their ingredients under one roof will increasingly find everything they need at M&S,” said Mr Esom.

“At M&S we believe great food starts with great ingredients. We’ve always been famous for the quality of our fresh and prepared food, but now we have used all our passion and enthusiasm for great-tasting food to create a stunning new range of cooking ingredients.”

The British Retail Consortium said this week that its members generally had had a disappointing festive season, with sales up just 0.3% on December 2006, the worst showing since 2004.