Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
February saw sales of homewares drop for a seventh consecutive month, according to figures just released.
BDO Stoy Hayward’s Like-for-Like Club reveals that sales in the homewares sector dropped by 8% in February compared to a year ago – and that the month’s retail sales overall were down by 8.1% year on year, the second worst figure since the Club began.
The Club outlines weekly sales changes of more than 60 mid-market retailers with some 4,500 individual stores located on high streets through the UK.
Rupert Eastell, BDO Stoy Hayward head of retail, says: “February 2009 will go down in the record books as being an extremely difficult month for retailers, as the realities of the credit crunch hit their businesses with a resounding thud this month.
“The first week of February brought severe weather conditions not seen for 18 years to the UK’s high streets and then, adding insult to injury, the timing difference with Mother’s Day knocked takings during the latter half of the month.”
He went on: “As we feared, January’s positive sales figures were just a blip, with results quickly reverting back to the negative levels experienced before Christmas.”
