KESA, the electricals retailer, gave warning yesterday that its profits would come in towards the lower end of forecasts this year after a difficult autumn for its Comet chain.
Underlying sales, which strip out the impact of new store openings, slid 2 per cent in the ten weeks to January 8 at Comet as it battled to compete with internet retailers and rivals Argos, Currys and Dixons. Shares in Kesa fell 5p to 258½p on the warning.
A spokesman for Kesa conceded that Comet was likely to have lost market share as rival retailers Currys and Dixons reported 3 per cent and 8 per cent rises in sales in the eight weeks to January 7 earlier this week.
Profits at Kesa were also affected by weak margins across the business and a worsening slump in sales at BUT, the group’s French furniture chain.
Underlying sales slid 8.6 per cent in the ten weeks to January 8 compared with the same period a year before, against a a 4.1 per cent fall in the three months to October 31 compared with the previous year.
Advertisement
In contrast Comet and Darty, Kesa’s French electricals chain, saw an improvement in sales growth over the Christmas period as sales of flat-screen televisions, MP3 players and other high-tech goods sold well.
Jean-Noel Labroue, group chief executive, said: “Following a difficult November, all our electrical businesses experienced better sales performance in the key peak trading period. As predicted, this was driven by strong sales in new techonologies, while sales of the more traditional white goods continued to be weak.”