MARKS & Spencer, suffering from a slump in UK consumer spending, said yesterday that sales had dropped the most since 2005 and sacked its top food executive after his unit had the worst quarter in at least a decade.

Steve Esom, the director in charge of food, is to leave a little more than a year after he joined, the UK's largest clothing retailer said. Sales at UK outlets open at least a year slid 5.3 percent in the 13 weeks ending on June 28, Bloomberg News said.

A 4.5-percent decline in food sales was the biggest drop since at least 1998. London-based M&S lost market share in food after Tesco and Asda reduced prices in what Chairman Stuart Rose said was "the biggest price war we've probably had in the last 20 years." Conditions won't improve for two years, he said.

M&S fell as much as 71.5 pence to 246.5 pence in London and was down 65.25 pence, or 21 percent, to 252.75 pence as of 1:38pm yesterday. A close at that price would be the lowest since September 27, 2001. The drop reduced the company's market value to about 4 billion pounds (US$7.97 billion).

"Consumers are feeling the pinch," Rose said, adding that the latest slowdown in sales started "about three weeks ago."

M&S, which gets almost half its revenue from food, faces increased competition from Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury, along with discounters such as Aldi and Lidl. Tesco last week said it cut prices on 8,000 items. An M&S 400-gram beef lasagne ready meal costs 2.39 pounds, while Tesco's is 99 pence and Sainsbury's a pound.

Same-store sales of clothing and home furnishings fell 6.2 percent in the quarter, Marks said. UK shoppers are spending less as rising energy and food bills erode disposable income.

"I can't believe this is a Marks & Spencer exclusive problem," Rose said. "Everybody now is just going to have to swallow hard and cut their cloth according to their needs."

Next, the UK's second-biggest fashion retailer, and department store company Debenhams also slid in London trading. Next declined as much as 12 percent, while Debenhams weakened as much as 17 percent.

Marks "needs a different skill set" to cope with the tougher conditions, Rose said, referring to the company's decision to replace Esom.