The Bookseller.com

5th July 2008

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Sales down at WHS over Christmas

31.01.08 Philip Jones

W H Smith's high street chain saw like-for-like sales drop by 3% over Christmas and New Year, in what the company called a "competitive period". Parent WHS Group also announced its intention to return £90m cash to shareholders.

In the 10 and 21 week periods to 26th January 2008, the high street shops saw like-for-like sales drop by 3%. The performance put WHS behind rival chains Waterstone's and Borders, both of which reported like-for-like growth over Christmas. But WHS said the result reflected its "ongoing strategy to rebalance the mix of business in this division". It added that the gross margin continued to improve year on year, after "successfully" controlling costs.

There was better news at the travel division where total sales were up 13% and like-for-like sales up 1% for the 21 weeks. WHS said that excluding tobacco, like-for-like sales were up 3%, and that the results were accompanied by a further improvement in underlying gross margin.

For WHS group as a whole, total sales were up 1% with like-for-like (LFL) sales down 2% for the 21-week period.

Kate Swann, WHS group chief executive, said: "As we anticipated, trading conditions on the high street were competitive over the Christmas period. In this environment, we continued our strategy to rebalance the mix of our business towards our core categories and increased our gross margins as a result. We are pleased with the continued progress in our travel business and we will continue to focus on growth opportunities in the coming year."

"Looking ahead, we remain cautious about consumer spending in our markets and our plans reflect this."

Retail W H Smith Philip Jones kate swann Christmas