Home Retail sees year-end profit slightly ahead

11th Mar 2010 07:24

Argos and Homebase operator Home Retail said benchmark profit before tax for the year will be around £290m, slightly ahead of current market expectations. In the 8 weeks to 27 February, total sales at Argos declined by 6.6% to £537m. Like-for-like sales declined by 9.4%, which included the approximate 3% negative impact of the later launch of the Spring/Summer catalogue, as well as an adverse impact of poor weather in this short and low volume period. Total sales at Homebase were held at £205m, though like-for-like sales declined by 0.6%, which included an adverse weather impact. The approximate 425 basis point gross margin decline was driven principally by the anticipated net impact of adverse currency movements.'This is a good outcome to a challenging year, and is combined with excellent cash generation. The final short trading period reported today saw volatile trading patterns, making it difficult to assess any changes in underlying consumer demand,' said chief executive Terry Duddy.'For the new financial year, we continue to plan cautiously given the uncertain economic outlook, but do so from our position of operational and financial strength.'