Table of Contents
Analyst Comment – So it wasn’t that bad a Christmas after all
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- Sales in December up 2.1%
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- Figure 1: Retail performance by sector, December 2018 and all 2018
- Food retailers finishing on a weak note
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- Figure 2: Food retailers Xmas sales performance, 2018
- Clothing – the good, the bad and the …
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- Figure 3: Clothing retailers Xmas sales performance, 2018
- Department stores
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- Figure 4: Department stores Xmas sales performance, 2018
- Non-store still growing strongest overall
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- Figure 5: Non-store retailers Xmas sales performance, 2018
- The elephant in the room
- Online vs the high street
- Nowhere to hide
- Lessons for 2019
UK Retail Sales
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- Key points
- Retail sales
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- Figure 6: Retail sales trends, 2017/18
- BRC vs ONS
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- Figure 7: UK retail sales y/y growth, BRC vs ONS, July 2016- December 2018
- John Lewis
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- Figure 8: John Lewis Department Stores: Year-on-Year Growth, Aug 2017- Dec 2018
- Inflation
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- Figure 9: Annual percentage change in the consumer price index for selected product groups, 2016-17
- Inflation and wages
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- Figure 10: Real wages growth: Wages growth vs inflation, Jan 2016- Dec 2018
- Confidence
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- Figure 11: Mintel Financial confidence tracker, January 2016 – November 2019
- Looking forward
Sector Focus – Online Retailing
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- Online sales grow 15% in 2018
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- Figure 12: All online retail sales, annual growth by month, non-seasonally adjusted, 2017-18
- Online share of sales steadily increasing
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- Figure 13: Online share of all retail sales, monthly, 2017-18
- Share of online sales equally split
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- Figure 14: Share of online sales, store-based vs pureplay retailers, 2010-18
- Why people shop for fashion online
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- Figure 15: Why consumers shop online for clothing, August 2018
Launch Activity and Innovations
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- UK: Iceland trials reverse vending machine
- UK: Morrisons introduces £1 fruit and vegetable box scheme
- UK: The John Lewis Partnership to test farmbots
- UK: Vodafone opens experiential store on Oxford Street
Headlines for the Month
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- Co-ops
- Grocers
- Off-licences
- Clothing retailing
- Multi-sector retailing
- Department stores
- Electrical retailing
- Furniture retailing
- Sports and leisure goods retailing
News Analysis – Food and Drink
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- Co-ops
- UK: Co-op to open 100 new food stores this year
- Grocers
- UK: Aldi has its most profitable festive period yet
- UK: Booths own-brand products now sold at Dobbies garden centres
- UK: Morrisons
- …posts fourth consecutive year of Christmas sales increase
- …to slash the price of more than 900 products
- UK: Sainsbury’s
- …and Asda apply for judicial review of CMA probe into merger
- …like-for-like sales fall 1.1% in Q3
- UK: Tesco reports strong Christmas sales
- UK: Waitrose banning plastic glitter in Christmas products
- Other food specialists
- UK: Greggs increases its 2018 profit forecast
- Off-licences
- UK: Majestic Wine reports 6.8% Christmas sales boost
News Analysis – Clothing and Footwear
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- UK: Blue Inc enters administration
- UK: Bonmarché forecasts potential £4 million loss
- UK: Burberry
- …hires Rod Manley as chief marketing officer
- …teaming up with Vivienne Westwood on first collaboration
- UK: Challenging trading at Primark in November
- UK: FatFace sales improve following tough start to Christmas trading
- UK: Greenwoods collapses into administration
- UK: Joules records 11.7% increase in Christmas sales
- UK: Missguided reports a pre-tax loss of £46 million
- UK: Next posts strong sales for Christmas period after disappointing November
- UK: Superdry
- …co-founder Julian Dunkerton returns to retailer in effort to save it
- …half-year profits down by 49%
- UK: Ted Baker
- …boss takes leave of absence
- …retail sales up 12.2% during Christmas trading
- UK: Victoria Beckham luxury fashion business makes a loss of £10.2 million for the year
- UK: Whistles returns to profit
- Footwear retailing
- UK: Footasylum cautions on profits
- UK: Shoe Zone enjoys a successful year
News Analysis – Mixed Goods
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- UK: B&M posts 1.6% fall in like-for-like revenues in its third quarter
- UK: Home Bargains introduces ‘Quiet Hour’ for customers with autism
- Multi-sector retailing
- UK: M&S
- …opening first Spanish high street store
- …sales down 2.2%
- …unveils vegan friendly range
- UK: Mothercare reports an 11.4% drop in like-for-like sales
- Department stores
- UK: Debenhams like-for-like sales tumble 3.4% over Christmas
- UK: John Lewis Partnership sales up 1.4%
- UK: Selfridges experiences record-breaking Christmas sales performance
- DIY retailing
- UK: First Homebase store sold off as part of its CVA
- UK: Robert Dyas swings to loss
- UK: Topps Tiles sales fall 1.4%
- Electrical retailing
- UK: Dixons Carphone report £440 million pre-tax loss in half year results
- Carpet retailing
- UK: United Carpets profit dive
- Furniture retailing
- UK: Eve Sleep hires chief marketing officer
- UK: H&M opening second H&M HOME concept store in London
- UK: IKEA
- …announces opening date for new Greenwich store
- …Bromley chosen as second location for IKEA city centre format store
- UK: Laura Ashley to close 40 UK stores
- UK: Victoria Plum to potentially merge with rival Bathstore
- Homewares retailing
- UK: Dunelm posts 5.7% increase in sales
News Analysis – Online
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- UK: ASOS revising full year financial expectations
- UK: Boohoo issues trading update following ASOS news
- UK: Gear4Music cautions for lower earnings this year
- UK: Mahabis enters administration
- UK: Ocado fourth quarter results reveal double-digit increase in revenue
News Analysis – Other Retail
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- Health & beauty retailing
- UK: Boots
- …hires Tesco convenience boss as chief operating officer
- …posts poor first-quarter sales
- UK: The Fragrance Shop Christmas trading boosted by online
- Book and stationery retailing
- UK: Card Factory Christmas sales slip marginally
- Sports and leisure goods retailing
- UK: Sports Direct profits drop following House of Fraser acquisition
- Garden centres
- UK: Dobbies records bumper Christmas as festive sales bloom
- Music and video goods retailing
- UK: HMV officially falls into administration
- Miscellaneous specialist retailing
- UK: Halfords warns on profits as Christmas sales fall
- UK: Hobbycraft reports strong Christmas trading period
- UK: Pets at Home hires first chief information officer
News Analysis – Economy
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- UK: November retail sales up by 4.4%
- UK: retail sales down 0.7% on a like-for-like basis in December
- UK: shop prices rise in December despite heavy discounting
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