Sales drop for struggling Woolworths

Published on Wednesday 17 September 2008 09:50

HIGH street retailer Woolworths has announced a 3.2 per cent drop in like-for-like sales for the 26 weeks to August 2.

The company's interim results also show a pre-tax loss of 99.7 million.

Woolworths, which has five Edinburgh stores, said it had struggled to shift summer product lines.

Since August 2 though, like-for-like retail sales have risen by 0.4 per cent, providing a glimmer of hope for the company's retail arm.

The firm's new chief executive, Steve Johnson, who recently succeeded Trevor Bish-Jones, said: "Right now, this business does not require lots of new strategic initiatives, it requires a good dose of basic shop keeping and attention to the detail of retailing."

Group chairman, Richard North, said third-party CD and DVD sales through Entertainment UK and video and music publishing venture 2 entertain were ahead of expectations.

The announcement by Woolworths comes as the Scottish Retail Consortium revealed overall like-for-like sales growth in August was at its lowest level since 2005.

Scottish Retail Consortium director, Fiona Moriarty said: "These are the worst August sales figures since 2005.

But she added: "Overall, Scottish like-for-like sales were still up year-on-year compared with falls in other parts of the UK."