Milder December weather a boon to WH Smith

25th Jan 2012 07:11

Like-for-like (LFL) sales are still on the decline at newsagent WH Smith, but at least the rate of decline is easing as sales in the final month of 2011 were not hit by fierce weather conditions like they were in 2010.The company said total sales for the group were down 3% in the 21 weeks to January 21st, compared to the corresponding period a year earlier. LFL sales were down 5% in the first 21 weeks of the group's financial year, but that represents a slight improvement on the previously reported 6% dip in LFL sales for the first 10 weeks of the fiscal year.An improvement had been expected over the longer period, however, given that the company was facing soft comparatives from December 2010, when the UK was hit by severe weather conditions which made travel difficult.Sales in the Travel division, which is the division that contains all the outlets at airports, motorway service stations, train stations and bus depots, were up 2% year-on-year in absolute terms but were down 3% on a LFL basis. Again, the LFL sales decline was not as bad as in the first 10 weeks of the trading period, when LFL sales were down 4%.On the High Street, total sales were down 5% in the 21-week period with LFL sales down 6%; the LFL sales decline was unchanged from the rate seen in the first 10 weeks of the trading period.Kate Swann, the group's Chief Executive, said the company had put in a resilient performance in difficult trading conditions."Gross margin was in line with plan and costs were tightly controlled," Swann said.Swann revealed that the Christmas trading period is becoming less important to the company. The months of November and December now represent less than half of annual group profit compared to over 90% of group profit six years ago. "Looking ahead, we expect the trading environment to be challenging; however, we have planned accordingly and continue to be confident in making further progress in the year," Swann said.jh