Woolworths reports sales pick-up
UK Retailer Woolworths offered some encouragement on trading today after the wet weather helped boost sales of its indoor products, such as DVDs.
The high street chain posted a 3.7% improvement in like-for-like sales in the eight weeks to July 28, compared with a 0.6% decline in the previous 17 weeks.
Woolies also said there had been a “strong early response” to its Worth It value range.
Shares in the company opened 6% higher, as investors looked for signs of a long-awaited trading recovery. In March, Woolies posted underlying pre-tax profits of £21.8m (€32.3m) for the 53 weeks to February 3, compared with £57.7m (€85.3m) the previous year.
Chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones said: “Whilst we are encouraged by the sales performance across the group to date, we are mindful that the retail like-for-like performance is against weak comparatives and we continue to be cautious about the retail environment going forward.”
That stance was backed by Seymour Pierce retail analyst Andrew Wade, as the company prepares for the all-important Christmas season.
He said: “While things do look as though they are beginning to pick up, we are not, at this stage, moving our forecasts and still struggle to get excited about Woolies.”
