Arcadia to exit BRC sales index
Blow to monthly sales data
October 25 2003
Arcadia is to stop supplying sales data from its eight high street brands to the monthly sales figures compiled by the British Retail Consortium.
The Financial Times reports that Arcadia and Bhs owner Philip Green has decided to withdraw, a move which puts a question mark over the value of the monthly data.
The BRC is having to recalculate its historic sales in order to take the Arcadia figures out of the equation. When combined with Bhs sales, the Arcadia chains – Top Shop, Top Man, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Burton, Evans and Outfit – account for about 10 per cent of UK clothing sales.
BRC director general Bill Moyes told the FT: “We budgeted for the loss of a very big retailer this year because we thought Philip might go. Philip is a big retailer but he is in a market where there are an awful lot of big players such as Marks and Spencer and Next. And what people really look at is not the absolute figures but the trend.”
The BRC is also likely to lose Safeway’s sales figures from its data if Morrisons successfully takes over the business, since the Bradford chain is not a BRC member. The FT also speculates that Debenhams may withdraw following the sale to Baroness Retail, led by entrepreneurs John Lovering and Rob Templeman.
