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Further contrast in the High Street with Morrisons up and John Lewis down
In 2 more views of the high street today Wm Morrison Supermarkets met forecasts with a 19% rise in first-half profit and said it was well placed to continue taking market share as cash-strapped Britons flock to its budget-focused stores.
Meanwhile John Lewis posted a 27% drop in first-half profit today and said it was cautious about the outlook for the rest of this year and 2009.
The employee-owned group which runs 27 department stores and 192 Waitrose supermarkets, is viewed as a bellweather for Britain's retail industry, said it made a pretax profit of £108 million in the six months to July 26 on a 3.6% rise in sales to £3.27 billion.
Operating profit at its department stores fell 34% to £40 million as sales of homewares were hit by a slump in the housing market. Operating profit at its upmarket Waitrose supermarkets fell 8% to £103 million.
Many store groups are struggling as indebted shoppers curb spending amid rising fuel and food costs, as well as sliding house prices.
"Conditions for the rest of the year will continue to be challenging with ongoing pressures on consumer spend ... We remain cautious about the outlook for the rest of 2008 and 2009," John Lewis said in a statement.
In Bradford Marc Bolland, Wm Morrison CEO says customers are trading down, own brand goods are performing strongly,and that they did not take their foot off the pedal on promotions in H1, and will continue to be promotional in H2, cutting prices on around 4,000 products in September alone.
Morrison FD says sales were up 8.2% and underlying store margin up about 40 bps, stripping out the impact of fuel.
Stock brokers Cazenove said that Morrisons margin performance would flatten out, the brand has been in recovery mode ever since the botched Safeway takeover, their comments hit the shares despite the good results.
Meanwhile John Lewis posted a 27% drop in first-half profit today and said it was cautious about the outlook for the rest of this year and 2009.
The employee-owned group which runs 27 department stores and 192 Waitrose supermarkets, is viewed as a bellweather for Britain's retail industry, said it made a pretax profit of £108 million in the six months to July 26 on a 3.6% rise in sales to £3.27 billion.
Operating profit at its department stores fell 34% to £40 million as sales of homewares were hit by a slump in the housing market. Operating profit at its upmarket Waitrose supermarkets fell 8% to £103 million.
Many store groups are struggling as indebted shoppers curb spending amid rising fuel and food costs, as well as sliding house prices.
"Conditions for the rest of the year will continue to be challenging with ongoing pressures on consumer spend ... We remain cautious about the outlook for the rest of 2008 and 2009," John Lewis said in a statement.
In Bradford Marc Bolland, Wm Morrison CEO says customers are trading down, own brand goods are performing strongly,and that they did not take their foot off the pedal on promotions in H1, and will continue to be promotional in H2, cutting prices on around 4,000 products in September alone.
Morrison FD says sales were up 8.2% and underlying store margin up about 40 bps, stripping out the impact of fuel.
Stock brokers Cazenove said that Morrisons margin performance would flatten out, the brand has been in recovery mode ever since the botched Safeway takeover, their comments hit the shares despite the good results.
Thu, 11th Sep 2008