Debenhams back to profit

Long-suffering investors in Debenhams finally had some relief after the department store

chain posted annual results that confirms the company is taking the right path. Five years after its flotation at 195p per share, the stoch has performed normally badly but Thursday it climbed 3.77p to 66.52p.
 
 Debenhams´profit for the 53 weeks to September 3 were £160 million, or in other words, a rise of 9%.  “We have demonstrated the resilience of the department store model by trading well in a challenging market. It is right to remain cautious about the strength of consumer confidence over the next 12 months given the uncertain economic outlook, ” stressed CEO Michael Sharp. Like-for-like sales were also up, adding 1.2pc. Nevertheless,  after tax sales downed by 0.3%. However, the yearly figures are not the only indicative of the good track that the company is showing lately. Right after new CEO Michael Sharp unveiled expansions plans, finance director Chris Woodhouse followed out the door the now former chief executive Rob Templeman. He is being replaced by Simon Herrik according to an official communication issued by the department store.

As reported by Financial News Network, Polo, Coach and Under Armour underperformed yesterday on a relative basis. “This analysis was compiled based on yesterday's trading activity as we search for stocks that have could possible underperform its peers going forward,” they explain. Polo Ralph Lauren ranks first with a loss of 3.09%; Gildan Activewear ranks second with a loss of 2.99%; and Warnaco ranks third with a loss of 2.96%. Coach follows with a loss of 2.78% and Under Armour  rounds out the bottom five with a loss of 2.68%.

In the end, Thursday was a good day for traded apparel companies, as shown by the FashionUnited Top 100 Index, which closed up to 1,287.88 points with a rise of 7.55 units.  Among the winners, Burberry SuperGroup and Wolford. On the opposite side,  Mulberry, Puma, Asos, Next and Ted Baker.