UK RETAIL ROUNDUP: DSG, Home Retail, Others Extend Xmas Gloom

Further evidence emerged Thursday that U.K. retailers - primarily sellers of houseware, electrical goods as well as car accessories - did badly over the Christmas holidays, as shoppers curbed spending amid rising unemployment and fears of a deep recession.

Electrical-goods group DSG International PLC (DSGI.LN) and Home Retail Group PLC (HOME.LN) reported sales and margin declines. Automotive and leisure products retailer Halfords Group PLC (HFD.LN) Thursday also booked a decline in sales but managed to improve margins, despite steep discounting across the retail sector.

Encouraging news did come from catalogue and online home shopping retailer N Brown PLC (BWNG.LN), DVD, CD and video games chain HMV Group PLC (HMV.LN), baby and parenting-goods concern Mothercare PLC (MTC.LN) and from Associated British Foods PLC's (ABF.LN) discount clothing chain Primark, with all reporting good Yule Tide sales growth.

Still, Europe's biggest independent mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse (CPW.LN) said it expects earnings next year to be flat and set out key strategic goals for the year to March 2010 in light of the weaker business conditions which it sees continuing.

Trading reports since the start of January show that the U.K. retailers that did best during Christmas 2008 were supermarkets, discount retailers, niche and online players as well as businesses that cater to young, financially unencumbered consumers.

As well as deteriorating trading conditions, retailers - particularly those that buy goods in Asia - face rising costs due to sterling's falling value versus the dollar. The bulk of the goods sold in Asia are pegged to the U.S. currency.

Attention now moves to scheduled reports from online retailer ASOS PLC (ASC.LN), Kesa Electricals PLC (KESA.LN), luxury group Burberry Group PLC (BRBY.LN) and William Morrison Supermarkets PLC (MRW.LN), which report next week.

The U.K. retail holiday trading season kicked-off on Jan. 5 when both U.K. department store chain John Lewis and London department store Liberty PLC (LBE.LN) presented encouraging sales reports.

On Jan. 6, Next PLC (NXT.LN), Debenhams PLC (DEB.LN), New Look and The Co-operative reported better-than-expected Christmas sales performances. Good holiday sales were also reported by department store House of Fraser and fashion retailer Peacocks.

Marks & Spencer Group PLC (MKS.LN) the following day said it would close stores and cut jobs in reaction to falling sales and tightening margins over the key Christmas period. M&S' poor trading performance was put in to stark relief on Jan. 8 when rival J Sainsbury PLC (SBRY.LN) unveiled a better-than-expected 4.5% rise in same-store-sales, excluding fuel, for the fiscal-third quarter ended Jan. 3, underpinned by its best Christmas results to date.

Sainsbury's strong performance also made Tesco PLC's (TSCO.LN U.K. performance look limp. The country's biggest retailer had its worst U.K. Christmas sales performance since the early 1990s, hurt by its greater exposure to non-food lines like clothing and electricals than some of its supermarket rivals.

Tesco said U.K. same-store-sales, excluding fuel, rose a modest 2.5% for the seven weeks to Jan. 10 from a year earlier, bang in line with market expectations. But Tesco booked an impressive 33% jump in international sales, helped by favorable exchange rate movements in Europe, and a particularly strong performance in Asia. Group sales rose 12%.

Although Christmas 2008 was not the collapse many had feared it has seen a number of retailers go to the wall.

U.K. sofa retailer Land of Leather PLC (LAN.LN) became the latest high-profile retail casualty of the U.K.'s struggling economy on Jan. 12 when it was placed in administration. Others forced into administration include china and glass group Waterford Wedgwood PLC (WTFU.DB), Passion for Perfume Ltd., Adams Childrenswear Ltd., clothing chain USC, CD, DVD and video game retailer zavvi, coffee-and-tea purveyor Whittards of Chelsea, clothing chain the Officers Club, Woolworths Group PLC (WLW.LN) and furniture retailer MFI.

Other U.K. retailers that are scheduled to report trading performances in coming days include:

 
Mon, Jan. 19  ASOS PLC (ASC.LN) trading update 
 
Tue, Jan. 20: Kesa Electricals PLC (KESA.LN) trading update 
 
Thu, Jan. 22: William Morrison Supermarkets PLC (MRW.LN) 
 
Mon, Jan. 26: WH Smith PLC (SMWH.LN) AGM trading update 
 
Tue, Feb. 3:  Carpetright PLC trading update 
 

-By Lilly Vitorovich, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-0-207 842 9290; [e-mail]

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