High Street Sales Figures Hold Up

Positive sales growth was reported across all the board this week, with homewares boosted by strong demand for DIY products, according to the High Street Sales Tracker from accountants and business advisers BDO LLP. Overall like-for-like sales were up by 3.5 per cent.

Don Williams, Head of Retail at BDO LLP commented: “High street spending held up extremely well this week, even with the uncertainty around the outcome of the general election.”

“Homewares, again, performed very well despite the fact that the weather hasn’t been great. Shoppers were out on the high street, no doubt, in preparation for the coming summer months. Other areas also managed to increase sales, non-fashion in particular improved.”

Figures from the BDO High Street Sales Tracker for the week ending 9 May 2010 showed:

Non-fashion +3.8%

Non-fashion retailers enjoyed their best week since Easter with the majority of stores reporting positive results. Apart from luxury, health and beauty also performed well.

Fashion +2.6%

Fashion had a positive week, even compared to last week’s 8.4 per cent rise. Higher-end brands generally outperformed, while trade across mainstream brands was slower and more promotion driven.

Homewares +10.0%

Positive sales of recent weeks continued. However, big ticket purchases were weak in spite of some positive results arising from promotions.

Non-store (mail order, online, etc) +54.8%

Non-store sales grew at their fastest rate since the first week of the year. Most areas experienced higher demand with clothing sales especially doing well.

-Ends-

Notes to Editors

The High Street Sales Tracker outlines weekly like-for-like sales changes of some 70 mid-tier retailers with c10,000 individual stores across Fashion: accessories, clothing, footwear. Non-fashion: general household goods, gifts, health & beauty, leisure goods. Homewares: cookware, furniture & floor coverings, lighting, linen & textiles.

About BDO

BDO LLP operates across the UK with some 3,000 partners and staff. BDO LLP is a UK limited liability partnership and a UK Member Firm of BDO International. BDO in Northern Ireland is a separate partnership operating under a licence agreement.  BDO International is a world-wide network of public accounting firms, called BDO Member Firms.  Each BDO Member Firm is an independent legal entity world-wide and no BDO Member Firm is responsible for the acts and omissions of another member. 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.

The combined fee income of all the BDO Member Firms was $5.14 billion in 2008. The global network has 1,095 offices in 110 countries and more than 44,000 partners and staff provide business advisory services throughout the world.

BDO LLP and BDO Northern Ireland are both separately authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority to conduct investment business.

BDO is the brand name for the BDO International network and for each of the BDO Member Firms.