Debenhams drops 12% and woe continues
Chief executive Rob Templeman said: ‘As the British Retail Consortium said this morning, this is the worst market for clothing sales for eight years.
‘Against that background we’ve gained market share against most of our competitors with our designer brands doing well. It is very difficult to predict the next year but I’m not in the camp which says this situation will last for two years.
‘This is not a recession problem but a financing problem. It came very fast and it could disappear equally fast.’
He even feels retailers might have a better summer than last year when sales were hit not just by bad weather but flooding, which closed some stores for weeks. Debenhams profits fell 12.4% to 84.1m in the 26 weeks to 1 March on sales down 0.7%.
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However, in the past six weeks same-store sales are down 2.5%. But the profit margin improved slightly.
Net debt is down by 37m to 979m and Templeman said he aims to cut this significantly over the next few years in the light of the current retail environment and economic outlook.
The is being held at 2.5p a share.
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