Retail sales - down but not out

Sales figures from BDO’s Like-for-Like Club for the week ending 8 March 2009 were as follows:

  • Total Sales: -0.6%

Total sales on a like-for-like basis fell by 0.6 per cent with little evidence of any sustained improvement in conditions.

  • Non-fashion: +6.1%

Against relatively weak comparisons last year, non-fashion sales increased with takings rising by 6.1 per cent.  Gifting, health and beauty and some luxury stores benefited from Mother’s Day activity, while general household demand also held-up. In contrast, demand for leisure goods remained subdued.

  • Fashion: -2.4%

Although fashion retailers experienced a better week, with some stores reporting higher demand for the first time since January, sales still nevertheless remained in negative territory, down 2.4 per cent.  Increased promotional activity helped support some growth, with the faster more affordable young fashion brands once again outperforming.

  • Homewares: -7.6%

Sales continued to retreat with results remaining firmly negative despite weak comparisons against last year.  Although heavy markdowns did help stimulate demand across some bigger ticket areas, this was offset by negative demand in other areas.

Rupert Eastell, Head of Retail at BDO, says: “Against the backdrop of unprecedented moves by the Bank of England to encourage lending, including a further drop in interest rates, trading conditions improved this week. In this market a small decrease in like for like sales is a positive performance, given the underlying economic conditions.”

“Non-fashion sales in particular were helped by distortions around the later timing of Mother’s Day this year. In addition, a new round of discounting by some of the larger department stores, echoed by some mid-market stores, also probably helped boost footfall across the whole high street, as did better weekend weather.”

Sales this week last year (w/e 8/3/08)
Purse strings tightened this week last year in response to rising utility bills and petrol costs. Colder than normal weather also kept many consumers away from the high street, while the short-term boost to non-fashion sales, caused by the early Mothering Sunday, had quickly faded. Fashion was the only sector to report marginally higher sales (+0.2 per cent), while non-fashion (-0.2 per cent) and homewares (-7.3 per cent) were negative.

Source: BDO SH

ENDS

For more information, please contact Dee Crooks at BDO on 020 7893 2761 / 07815 172 051 or email dee.crooks@bdo.co.uk

Notes to editors:

BDO’s Like-for-Like Club outlines weekly sales changes of more than 60 mid market retailers with some 4,500 individual stores. These are mainly located on high streets through the UK, however, they exclude grocers. The results are published every Friday.

BDO LLP operates across the UK with over 3,000 partners and staff. BDO LLP is a UK limited liability partnership and the UK Member Firm of BDO International. BDO international is a world-wide network of public accounting firms, called BDO Member Firms. Each BDO Member Firm is an independent legal entity in its own country. The network is coordinated by BDO Global Coordination B.V., incorporated in The Netherlands, with its statutory seat in Eindhoven (trade register registration number 33205251) and with an office at Boulevard de la Woluwe 60, 1200 Brussels, Belgium, where the International Executive Office is located. In the UK the Belfast Firm is operated by a separate Partnership known as BDO - Belfast.

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