LONDON, Jan 7: British retailer Marks & Spencer, an icon and key barometer of consumer sentiment on the nation’s high streets, is to cut up to 1,230 jobs and shut 27 stores, it said on Wednesday.

The news, in a Christmas trading update by the clothes-to-food chain, added fresh gloom to the retail sector as a sharp economic downturn starts to bite and comes one day after the shutdown of general retailer Woolworths.

Like-for-like sales -- stripping out the effect of new floor space -- dived 7.1 per cent in 13 weeks to Dec 27, 2008, compared with the same period of the previous financial year, M&S said.

The group said that 25 of the 27 store closures would involve the company’s “Simply Food” outlets specialising exclusively in food products, notably those that are small and under-performing.

The move would mean the loss of 780 jobs.

In addition, Marks & Spencer said it planned to eliminate as many as 450 posts in administrative services and would reduce retirement benefits.

The measures are expected to save 175-200 million pounds (193-220 million euros, $261-298 million) in the company’s next fiscal year, which begins April 1.

“We are aware that the proposed changes ... will be difficult for those members of staff impacted but given that we expect challenging economic conditions to continue for at least the next 12 months we believe we are taking the right action to maintain the strength of our business,” Chairman Stuart Rose said.

The British retail sector, buckling under the weight of a looming recession, has already witnessed the collapse of several chains including Woolworths, furniture group MFI and entertainment store Zavvi.

In the run-up to Christmas, M&S held two one-day sales when it slashed prices by 20 per cent in an attempt to attract more festive shoppers.

M&S had revealed in November that first-half net profit sank 43 per cent as cash-strapped consumers tightened their belts.

Rose said on Wednesday that the company was forced to slim down with a lean start to the year in prospect.

“I think Jan, Feb, March is going to be a testing time for us all and that is why we have regretfully today taken the action we have taken to prepare ourselves for what we do believe will be a difficult year,” he told the BBC.

“I’m confident we will come out of it in one piece, I am confident we will be able to look forward but I think it will be tough.” “The third quarter like-for-like sales are bad ... but not quite so bad as we expected, thanks to a late spending surge pre-Christmas,” said Nick Bubb, retail analyst at Pali International.

Howard Wheeldon, of BGC Partners, said the results were “pretty dire.”

“It seems that M&S may at last have accepted that the Simply Food chain has reached its limits in the UK or that given the difficult times we are all now living in, the whole business model needs to be re-thought.”

M&S’s competitor in the clothing sector, chain store Debenhams, saw its shares jump more than 20 per cent on Tuesday after announcing a much better-than-expcted 3.3-per cent drop in like-for-like sales in the final 12 weeks of 2008.

The demise of Woolworths, which had 807 stores dotted across Britain, left 27,000 people out of work.

Marks & Spencer shares ended the day up 2.2 per cent at 244 pence after Wednesday’s news, bucking the trend of London’s FTSE 100 index, which ended down 2.83 per cent at 4,507.51 points. —AFP