TESCO raised the stakes in the fight for clothing sales on the high street yesterday with a promise to stock a full range of fashion in an extra 20 stores a year, in a move that will heap extra pressure on Marks & Spencer.

The supermarket giant revealed an unprecedented 39 per cent surge in sales of clothing during the six months to August 31, marking a sweet victory for John Hoerner, the man in charge of Tesco’s fashion sales, over his rival Stuart Rose, the newly installed chief executive of M&S.

Mr Hoerner was ousted from Arcadia, the Dorothy Perkins chain, to make way for Mr Rose four years ago.

Tesco’s booming clothing sales came as M&S revealed more gloomy figures, including a 2.5 per cent fall in first-half clothing sales. Tesco’s Florence & Fred and Cherokee ranges are stocked in 200 stores. Smaller ranges such as Tesco Value merchandise, including basics such as underwear and T-shirts, are available in many more stores.

Tesco holds only 1.8 per cent of overall clothing sales compared with M&S’s 11 per cent share, according to Verdict Research, the market research company. But Tesco’s combination of strong brands, super-cheap products — such as jeans at £4 a pair — and strong design are helping it to grab more and more sales.

Tesco and its rival Asda, which now has an estimated 3.7 per cent share of the clothing market, have been particularly successful in building sales of children’s clothing and basic items, historically areas of strength for M&S.

The problems in clothing echo similar troubles in food where Tesco’s strides into more upmarket premium products and ready-meals have muscled in on M&S’s stronghold.

Richard Hyman, of Verdict Research, said: “Retailers such as Tesco, Asda and Primark have realised that they don’t need prime high street sites to sell basics, and that means that M&S has really got to offer customers added value in terms of fashion merchandised in cohesive collections rather than its traditional items set out by commodity.”