Woolworths grows sales in competitive market
Core chain wins share of enetertainment market
January 15 2004
Woolworths took its share of the high street Christmas market, growing sales in spite of fierce competition in key product areas, mainly entertainment.
Sales were at thenlow end of City forecasts in what the high street retailer said was a ‘satisfactory’ performance.
Across the eight weeks to January 10, total like-for-like sales growth was 0.8 per cent, with like-for-like sales growing in the core Woolworths mainchain stores by 1.1 per cent.
The out-of-town Woolworths big W stores grew like-for-likes by 3.2 per cent, while the MVC CD and DVD chain disappointed with a decline of 6 per cent. Total group sales for grew by 3.4 per cent.
Across the 23 weeks to January 10, retail like-for-like sales growth was 0.4 per cent, with the high street chain up by 0.9 per cent, big W up 2.1 per cent and MVC falling by 7.9 per cent. Total group sales for the 23 week period grew by 5.2 per cent, with the retail businesses up 0.7 per cent.
Woolworths entertainment distribution businesses, Entertainment UK and VCI, grew like-for-like sales by 31.1 per cent. across the 23 weeks and performed strongly over Christmas.
The company said growth at its refurbished Woolworths stores has been encouraging and margins across the mainchain and big W have continued to improve. Entertainment has been the exception, where margins have fallen as Woolworths took an ‘aggressive stance’ on pricing to drive stronger sales volumes.
Chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones, said: “Our continued focus on improving the business operations and developing our product ranges, combined with the advanced planning and promotional stance for our key trading period, has paid off this Christmas, despite a competitive retail environment.
“We continue to make progress on evolving our customer proposition, based on the strategy of making Woolworths famous for ‘Kids and Celebrations’, and are pleased that the encouraging performance at our refurbished trial stores was sustained through the Christmas period.”
