UK jewellery sales slide for Signet
H Samuel and Ernest Jones parent Signet posted accelerating sales declines across its UK business today as consumer caution hit high street spending.
US-headquartered Signet Jewelers reported a 2.9% fall in UK same-store sales in its fourth quarter and said the performance had worsened since the year-end, with sales down 4.6% in the first seven weeks.
The news adds to growing evidence of a marked slowdown in UK consumer spending, with a raft of retailers reporting sales troubles in recent days.
But Signet was able to shrug off the weak UK sales to post a 30% hike in pre-tax income to $300.4m (€213.6m) for the year to January 29 thanks to better demand across its US operations, where it runs Jared the Galleria of Jewelry and Kay Jewelers.
The group said it was seeing the gap widen between trading conditions in the UK and US.
It said: "There is stabilisation in the US economy and growth in the US jewellery market.
"The UK economy is being impacted by pressure on discretionary spending due to the Government's austerity program, which includes an increase in the VAT rate implemented on January 4 and higher consumer inflation at a time of limited growth in personal disposable income."
Earlier this year, Signet said it hoped its UK business had started to turn the corner after it improved on a 2.4% sales decline in the year to January 2010 with a 0.1% decline in the first seven weeks of its financial year.
But trading declined throughout the year, with fourth quarter figures showing Ernest Jones - including the Leslie Davis brand - suffered a 2.9% drop in sales while H Samuel saw a 1.7% fall.
It blamed the snow for a slowdown over Christmas as shoppers were kept away from stores.
UK same store sales over the year as a whole were down 1.4%.
However, its US business has strengthened and reported annual like-for-like sales up 8.9% - which has risen to growth of 11.4% in the first seven weeks of the new year.
Signet has 540 stores in the UK after shutting 12 in the past year.
It has 1,317 outlets across America.
