The Bookseller.com

11th October 2008

Waterstone's 4% festive growth

17.01.08 Philip Jones

Waterstone's has reported a positive Christmas despite what the business called a "highly competitive book market". In the five weeks to 5th January like-for-like sales at the bookshop chain were up by 4%, with actual growth of 0.5%. Gerry Johnson, managing director, said he was "delighted" by the numbers, putting the growth down to its internet arm, a strong promotional message, and the local influence of individual booksellers.

Johnson told The Bookseller: "We did extremely well with the big titles, much better than in the previous year. But at the same time we did well with the mid-range titles, which did well across the board this Christmas." Johnson praised publishers for offering a "good list" of titles that gave the chain's booksellers "lots of opportunities" to drive footfall. Johnson said that he was pleased that the business had still grown (by 0.5%), despite the store closures made over the year.

The high street chain is the first of the big booksellers in the UK to reveal its figures, and vindicates the view that book retailing fared particularly well in an otherwise difficult Christmas for retailers. Waterstone's numbers are well ahead of Nielsen Bookscan's high street indicator the General Retail Market, which recorded sales growth of 1.1% in December, and just marginally behind the wider Total Consumer Market, which saw growth of 5%.

In the ten weeks to 5th January Waterstone's recorded like-for-like sales growth of 3.3%, with actual sales flat. The chain also reported that its gross margin was up 30 basis points (0.3%).

The bookseller has now reported like-for-like sales growth in its last three trading updates, with like-for-like growth of 1.4% in its half year to 27th October, and growth of 0.6% in the period between 28th April and 23rd June. Last Christmas the chain reported like-for-like sales decline of 2% over the five-week festive period. Johnson said he was pleased to be able to report positive figures after a number of difficult years, but said that things would remain tricky on the high street. "It is not going to get any easier, but I can't see why we can't be successful."

Waterstone's performance was more than matched by its sister chain HMV, which showed like-for-like growth of 14.1%. In total the HMV Group reported actual sales growth of just shy of 10% over Christmas, putting the rest of the high street to shame.

Chief executive Simon Fox said: "Less than a year into our transformation programme the initiatives we are undertaking to revitalise our business have helped to deliver a highly successful Christmas. Having stabilised the business, we will continue to focus on revitalising our store propositions as well as growing new channels to market and carefully managing margins and costs. The group is, therefore, well positioned for the next phase of its turnaround."

Retail Philip Jones waterstone's Christmas

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