Summary
Signet Group's same-store sales in first quarter fell 2.5 percent. Total sales rose 1 percent to $822.3 million, for the quarter ending May 3, 2008. Group performance is poor in US but doing fine in UK, what should we call it?
Analysis
Signet Group's same-store sales in first quarter fell 2.5 percent. Total sales rose 1 percent to $822.3 million, for the quarter ending May 3, 2008. (At a constant exchange rate -- group sales rose 0.7 percent.)
Sales in the United States fell 0.2 percent to $630.9 million and same-store sales fell 4.7 percent. But in the U.K., sales rose 5.1 percent to $191.4 million and same-store sales rose 5.3 percent. (At a constant exchange rate -- U.K. sales rose 4 percent.)
Between these times retail in US has become very hard and this is all because of higher gas and food prices, which lets consumers in the United States --even more affluent ones-- are seeking shelter in wholesale clubs and discount apparel chains. Low-price operators Costco Wholesale Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and TJX Cos. are getting better-than-expected sales, while traditional apparel chains J.C. Penney Co. and Limited Brands Inc. with Luxury Goods Retailers struggled.
Because of an extra shopping day in April compared with a year ago, the retail industry expected sales to rise in April.
The UBS-International Council of Shopping Centers retail sales tally for the month rose 3.6 percent. The figure surpassed the 2 percent growth estimate and marks the biggest gain since March 2007 when the index was up 5.9 percent. The April performance followed a 0.5 percent decline the previous month, the weakest March in 13 years.
Sales for the two months combined were a tepid 1.6 percent, in line with the average sales growth since the beginning of the industry's fiscal year. The surprise, however, was the growing gap between discounters and traditional retailers.
Discount chains registered a 3 percent same-store sales gain, while wholesale clubs posted a 9.2 percent gain. Meanwhile, same-store sales at apparel chain stores fell 1.4 percent, according to the ICSC tally. Except for Wal-Mart, whose shares rose 33 cents to $57.16, investors pushed many retailers' shares down. J.C.Penney's stock fell 2.41 percent and Costco's shares lost more than 1 percent.
This shows conditions in US are not good and people are moving towards diescounts stores and cheap goods, to fulfil thier requirments Its looks like Signet Group has to face more problem with the US market.
