Verdict releases report for clothing, fashion and personal care.
Gap has admitted the failure of its two year strategy to revamp its Gap and Old Navy brands in the US. This announcement follows poor December trading, with sales down 4% from December 2005 to $2.34 billion.
Alexon Group has revealed a 4% fall in like-for-like sales in the 22 weeks to 30 December, 2006, reflecting a mixed performance across its brand portfolio. Alexon brand sales performed poorly, with like-for-likes down 5% - Eastex and Dash performed well but the company struggled to clear stock, despite markdowns, after poor range acceptability at Alex & Co and Minuet.
Like-for-like sales at Bay Trading declined 2.0% but margins improved. Menswear sales performed better, with like-for-likes down 1.0%, helped by strong trading in December.
Department store House of Fraser recorded a 7.3% increase in like-for-like sales in the four weeks to December 30, 2006 compared to the same period in 2005. This was aided by a record week for the company directly before Christmas.
Next reported a 2.8% increase in combined sales for Next Retail and Next Directory for the period from 31 July to 24 December 2006. The 0.8% increase in Next Retail sales was brought down by a drop in like-for-like sales, which fell 6.9% at its 308 stores unaffected by new openings. Next Directory sales increased by 9.3% over the same period.
marketing@alchempro.com
