LONDON (Standard&Poor's) July 13, 2005--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on U.K.-based retailer Marks&Spencer PLC (M&S; BBB/Stable/A-2) are unaffected by the group's announcement of a significant sales decline of 9.2% in its clothing and apparel division for the first quarter of financial 2006. Standard&Poor's notes that despite M&S' continually weak apparel trading, the group remains on track to achieve its improvements to operating earnings and free cash flow generation during the current year. Standard&Poor's expects that these improvements are likely to be driven by positive sales growth in M&S' food retail division (up 0.7% on a like-for-like basis), reduction in operating costs, and significantly lower stock
