christmas sales report 2014-15 | retailer performance | retail results
TRANSCRIPT
FSP RETAIL BUSINESS CONSULTANTS
Christmas Sales Report 9 January 2015
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Comment FSP was interested to hear Andy Street questioning the wisdom of Black Friday. We believe that UK retailing has missed an important aspect of this phenomenon. Thanksgiving has always been a huge holiday in the US whereas Boxing Day (being recognised in only a few southern states) and the attendant sales activity, has always been very secondary. However here in the UK we have tried to have both and unsurprisingly sales have transferred not only from before Christmas (when margins would undoubtedly have been better) but also from the traditional Boxing Day surge. This coupled with excess stock following the, as yet, mild winter, suggests that many retailers are likely to have a real headache when the dust settles at the end of January However, looking at the sales figures for Christmas, the picture looks pretty good for those which have reported so far. It seems all we wanted for Christmas was a book, with Foyles and The Works doing well, whilst Waterstones reported physical book sales rising 5% in December as Kindle sales declined. For House of Fraser, the new owners must be delighted that whereas other retailers, including John Lewis, have relied upon online to lift sales, HoF has seen a good like-for-like increase in its shops With the graphs so far presenting a positive picture, the negatives really stand out. All online results are positive, except M&S. With the rise of multi-channel and click & collect, to swim against the flow is pretty unimpressive; it matters not what omni-channel functionality is available, M&S potential-customers remain unexcited Tesco, on the other hand, fared better than its recent history would suggest Last year Christmas was casualty-free, but not so this. Bank became the first to fall in 2015 and USC is about to follow suit. Neither is much of a surprise. Bank has been loss-making for a number of years, with no conceivable solvent way of turning the business around, and the demise of USC has been on the cards for some time following the shuttering of Republic stores and subsequent rebranding to USC by Sports Direct. The FSP Christmas Sales report is presented showing:
like-for-like averages by category retail failures over Christmas retailer performance, total and like-for-like
All data are sourced from the FSP Retailer Database.
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Like-for-Like Averages
Please see the individual categories for a comprehensive view of trading reported so far. Number of retailers by category:
2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
Clothing & Footwear 8 14 6 Personal 5 6 4 Food & Beverage* 8 7 3 Leisure 6 6 5 Household 7 7 6 Department Stores 5 7 6 Grocery 16 11 9
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Christmas Trading and Administrations FSP records Christmas casualties as those who fail during the key period of Christmas Eve to the end of the first week in January. After the harsh years of 2008 and 2011, things looked much brighter last year, and with the number of failures during the whole year significantly down on all recent years, we were hopeful for a repetition of Christmas 2013. Then Bank failed and USC is hot on its heels
The number of retailers recorded on SnapShop entering administration in each of the past few years is: 2014 – 9 2013 – 43 2012 – 44 2011 – 57 2010 – 42 2009 – 93 2008 – 56
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All Retailers
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3 Year Comparison
Retailers shown where 3 years’ of data are available
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Merchandise Groups Department Stores
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Clothing & Footwear
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Grocery
Household Goods
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Personal Good
Food & Beverage
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Leisure Goods
Online Sales
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FSP Christmas Sales Report Methodology
FSP seeks to gain an accurate review of the Christmas period, hence the period end date must be at least Christmas Eve and no later than the end of January; the period must be 13 weeks or less.
Online Sales are always shown as Total changes. Graphs are ranked in order, highest to lowest, first by Like-for-Like change, then by Total change
www.fspretail.com
FSP has gone to its best efforts to ensure this data is correct but the author reserves the right not to be responsible for the accuracy
of information provided.
FSP RETAIL BUSINESS CONSULTANTS 19 Manor Courtyard Hughenhen Avenue High Wycombe UK, HP13 5RE T +44(0)1494 474740 F +44(0)1494 474262 [email protected] www.fspretail.com www.snap-shop.co.uk
Heidi Roberts Operations Director T +44(0)1494 474740 F +44(0)1494 474262
Tanu Bajaj Business Analyst T +44(0)1494 474740 F +44(0)1494 474262
Bekki Bedford Admin Manager T +44(0)1494 474740 F +44(0)1494 474262