Woolies comes up trumps
STORES group Woolworths today bounced back from its Easter embarrassment by posting its strongest quarterly sales growth for at least two years and unveiling plans for its biggest-ever Christmas.
A record 6,500 staff are being taken on by the pick 'n' mix retailer for the festive season as chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones tries to build on a summer recovery.
Strong sales of CDs, DVDs, and toys such as kids' card trading game Yu-Gi-Oh! saw like-for-like growth in its High Street stores jump to 2.5% in the three months to 30 June.
This compares with a 0.4% drop in the first quarter when the group was left with egg on its face after missing out in a fierce Easter egg price war with the supermarkets.
The growth helped narrow underlying pre-tax losses for the half-year to £34.9m from £39.7m in the year earlier period. Total sales across the group - which includes big W - rose 1.7% to £1.1bn.
Bish-Jones, who joined from Dixons 18 months ago, said Woolies was also benefiting from improvements in the supply chain and tighter cost control - in some weeks promotions have been cut by 20%.
He added: 'We have moved the business forward on pretty well every front, operationally and product development, and the customers are responding. We're looking forward to Christmas with confidence.'
Woolworths typically makes a loss in the first half and catches up over the second half - the run-up to Christmas accounts for 40% of its annual revenue.
The interim dividend is being lifted 10.8% to 0.36p.
