N Brown tackling sales decline
Home shopping business faces tough market
Home shopping specialist N Brown has reported a 3.1 per cent fall in group sales for the 21 weeks to January 22, as it continues to face very competitive market conditions.
The group’s core home shopping sales are 0.1 per cent up across the period, with an ‘encouraging’ performance of from home and gift catalogues, particularly Christmas gift ranges “where sales were well above our expectations”. This included a contribution from the House of Bath business acquired in November.
The company said the clothing and footwear retail environment remains challenging and deflationary, with “growth skewed to the younger customer”. Clothing and footwear were also hit by a four-day delay in the release of the Spring 2005 catalogues due to the timing of the New Year holiday.
The overall sales fall includes an expected 25 per cent fall in door-to-door selling business House of Stirling.
N Brown said: “With the benefits of our targeted cost reduction campaign the board’s expectations for the performance of the business are broadly unchanged.”
