March Retail News
The underlying rate of retail sales growth has slowed for the first three months of 2006. This follows a period of increasing growth towards the end of 2005. The volume of retail sales for January to the end of March 2006 was 0.7% lower than in the previous three months.
Retail sales growth (per cent)
Like for like sales for March 2006 saw a drop of 1.4% against a strong March 2005 when Easter boosted sales. Easter falling in April this year and the unseasonably cold weather has meant sales patterns have been severely distorted.
MARCH
JANUARY – MARCH
Like-for-Like
Total
Like-for-Like
Total
-1.4%
1.6%
0.3%
3.4%
Spring / Summer clothing and footwear continued to have a difficult period while food sales remained largely flat with only a 0.1% increase in sales volume.
Home and Leisure products are continuing to struggle against weak consumer confidence with any sales growth being driven by discounting.
The unadjusted values of retail sales were 0.1% higher than March 2005. The average weekly value of sales in March 2006 was £4.5billion, which was 0.1% higher than in March 2005.
Kevin Hawkins, Director General, BRC said “The probability is that, after adjusting for the timing of Easter, the underlying trend in like-for-like sales is, at best, flat. Although the housing market has been talked up for the past few months, none of this has, as yet, fed through to the DIY sector. Nor is there any sign of the Bank of England’s expected growth in consumer spending.”
Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail, KPMG commented that "At first sight these figures are disappointing with negative like-for-like sales being seen for the first time in 2006. However, they are heavily distorted by the impact of Easter which fell in March last year. Not only has this affected underlying sales trends but it has also influenced the timing of mid-season promotions. A truer picture of retail sales will be seen once we can assess March and April’s figures together. In the meantime, it has to be hoped that people understand the background to these figures and that the slight optimism which has started to build in recent months is not allowed to wither.”
