Defiant Beatties resists discounting
Sales dip across Christmas
The determination not be be drawn into a price cutting war in the run-up to Christmas enabled department store group James Beattie to protect margins at the expense of a sales dip.
Beatties has reported a like-for-like sales decline of 2.1 per cent for the seven weeks to January 15.
The company, which has seen strong competition from rivals in its Midlands stores, said its “performance for the year as a whole is significantly influenced by the outcome of the Christmas trading period.
“It has already been extensively reported that current retail trading conditions have been severe with many retailers resorting to deep discounting in the pre-Christmas period in an attempt to capture sales in a very difficult consumer market. The company once again decided not to participate in this activity in order to maintain its pricing integrity and gross margin.”
Beatties said it expects its results for the full year to the end of January, excluding exceptional items, to be in line with current consensus forecasts.
