LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - The head of Marks & Spencer
Executive Chairman Stuart Rose said customers were tightening their belts during the tough times.
In an inverview on Sky's Jeff Randall Live, he said: "There is no doubt about it, margins have been squeezed, and I think margins (in the retail sector) will be continued to be squeezed through this year."
He denied M&S had been priced out of the market over the key Christmas trading period.
"In our case we have sacrificed some margin to give our customers a deal, but I do not accept that we are priced out of the market. I just think it is a situation where we are in a difficult situation," he said.
He added that M&S had a record run-up to Christmas.
"We actually had a record 10 days to Christmas and took more money in one day than we had ever taken."
"Our total sales over the Christmas period were actually 1 percent down. Now the like-for-like was down by something just under 5 percent ... in the UK," he said. He did not give the dates covered by the Christmas figures.
"We have definitely seen a situation where people have become very price conscious and some of my customers have said 'look, we are frankly finding it a bit tough and we have had to go to alternative sources,'" he added.
At the beginning of this year, M&S reported its biggest fall in sales for a decade and its plan to cut 200 million pounds ($292.3 million) of costs, including 1,230 jobs.
The clothing, food and homewares group said like-for-like sales in Britain fell 7.1 percent year-on-year in the 13 weeks to Dec. 27, its third quarter.
Rose said a process was in place to find his successor, but he would not put a timetable on it other than to say he would not stay on in the business beyond 2011.
"There is a nomination committee, there is a process and in due course, a bit like electing a pope, some white smoke presumably will come out of some chimney in some place and we will move on." (Reporting by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Gary Hill)