Late summer causes sharpest sales drop in 2.5 years

The longer the summer, the worse it is for fashion, or so it seems. New figures released on Monday show the retail sector suffered its greatest decline in sales in two and a half years. As stores were forced to endure a “perfect storm”

of unseasonably warm weather and economic gloom, fashion shoppers were fickle, and steered clear of winter items such as outerwear and sweaters. Items that have been on the shop floor since August.

BDO, the professional services firm, said total retail sales from mid-sized stores open at least a year fell 4 per cent in September, the biggest slide since February 2009. More

BDO’s High Street Sales Tracker – which analyses like-for-like sales at retail and fashion stores with an annual turnover of £5m-£500m – said fashion retailers were put on the back foot by temperatures that nudged towards 30 degrees.

As well as economic malaise, and a dearth of promotions, retailers were also hit by comparisons with a strong September last year.

“Last year consumer confidence was higher, promotions came earlier and the weather played ball,” said Don Williams, head of retail at BDO.

The desolation on the high street was underlined last week by profit warnings from SuperGroup and Mothercare, while Tesco is estimated to have suffered its worst UK underlying sales performance for 20 years.

September and early October’s warm weather has proved a particular headache for store groups already suffering from cautious consumers reining in spending. John Lewis department stores reported a 9.5 per cent decline in total sales excluding VAT in the week to October 1. Sales fell at every John Lewis store open for more than a year.

The warm weather has also sparked concern about the performance at Marks and Spencer, for whom September is a crucial month. Last week the FT revealed that it had asked suppliers to contribute tens of millions of pounds to its store refurbishment programme, through a controversial levy on their turnover with M&S in the year to August.

Image: Burberry trench
Source: FT©