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W H Smith has described its Christmas performance, in which like-for-like high street sales were down 5% for the 11 weeks to 23rd January, as "good" and "in line with expectations", stressing that despite the sales fall "gross margins increased and costs were tightly controlled" in both divisions.
Though the reporting periods are different the chain appears to have fared better than rival Waterstone's, and outperformed Nielsen BookScan's General Retail Market measure, a good indicator of high street performance, which showed sales down 9.5% over the same period. Its travel business even reported a slight uptick in growth, with total sales up 2% in the 21 weeks to 23rd January.
Overall, group total sales were down 2% with like-for-like sales down 4% for the 21 weeks. Total high street sales for the 11 weeks were down by 2%, and 4% down for 21 weeks. On a like-for-like measure there were down 5% and 4% respectively. In travel, total sales were up 2% although life-for-like sales down 2% for the 21 weeks.
The company said it was "confident in the outcome for the full year". Kate Swann, group chief executive, said: "The group delivered a good performance during the period. We made further progress in our high street business and our travel business continues to perform well, despite soft passenger numbers at airports. Although we remain cautious about consumer spending, we have planned accordingly and are confident in the outcome for the full year."