{"id":6177,"date":"2019-01-10T08:31:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T08:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/debenhams-sales-tumble-over-christmas\/"},"modified":"2019-01-10T08:31:29","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T08:31:29","slug":"debenhams-sales-tumble-over-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/debenhams-sales-tumble-over-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Debenhams sales tumble over Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Debenhams store\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/3A72\/production\/_105126941_debsgettyimages-1031363044.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Struggling department store chain Debenhams has reported a fall in sales during the crucial Christmas trading period.<\/p>\n<p>In a &#8220;volatile&#8221; environment with customers seeking discounts, Debenhams reported a 5.7% fall in like-for-like sales in the 18 weeks to 5 January.<\/p>\n<p>The group, which is closing 50 stores, said it would not sell any businesses while it spoke to its lenders.<\/p>\n<p>Talks with lenders were &#8220;constructive&#8221;, Debenhams said.<\/p>\n<p>In the shorter trading period, the six weeks to 5 January, like-for-like sales &#8211; which strip out changes to stores &#8211;  were down 3.4%.<\/p>\n<p>Sergio Bucher, chief executive of Debenhams, said the number of customers coming to his stores across the country &#8220;had been weak&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>A number of other retailers have released trading statements.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46820888\" class=\"story-body__link\">Marks &amp; Spencer saw its sales drop<\/a> over the Christmas holiday period. Like-for-like sales, which strip out the impact of new stores, were down 2.2% in the 13 weeks to 29 December. Food sales fell 2.1% and its clothing and home sales division slid 2.4%.<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46820908\" class=\"story-body__link\">Tesco appeared to buck the gloomy trend<\/a>. It said trading over the Christmas period had been &#8220;strong&#8221;. The company, which is the UK&#8217;s biggest supermarket chain, said its like-for-like sales over Christmas in the core UK area were up 2.2% in the six weeks to 5 January.<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">John Lewis said sales in the seven-week <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46820912\" class=\"story-body__link\">Christmas period were 1.4% higher<\/a> than for the same period last year. However, that may not be enough to secure a bonus for its staff this year, the firm added.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Mike Ashley&#8217;s Sports Direct owns nearly 30% of Debenhams and has offered a \u00a340m investment in the chain.<\/p>\n<p>Debenhams rebuffed his approach but is talking to lenders about renewing \u00a3520m of banking facilities.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, it will postpone the possible sale of other parts of its business, including its successful operations in Denmark.<\/p>\n<p>Debenhams, which employs around 25,000, said it had been cutting prices over the Christmas period and that might eat into profits in the first half of the year.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Store revamps<\/h2>\n<p>In October, when it published full-year results, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-45975321\" class=\"story-body__link\">it reported a record annual loss<\/a> and said it would close up to 50 of its 165 branches.<\/p>\n<p>Some of its remaining stores are being refitted to boost trading.<\/p>\n<p>Nine stores so far have been revamped, with Stevenage the best performer among them, the firm said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Bucher said the improvement in the redesigned stores demonstrated his attempt to turn around the business was making progress.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have worked hard to deliver the best possible outcome in very uncertain times for retailers. We responded to a significant increase in promotional activity in the market, particularly in key seasonal categories, in order to remain competitive for our customers,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Online sales rose 6% in the six-week Christmas trading period, after what Debenhams described as &#8220;slow start to the season&#8221;. It said this meant there had been two-year online growth of over 20%.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46820588\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images Struggling department store chain Debenhams has reported a fall in sales during the crucial Christmas trading period. In a &#8220;volatile&#8221; environment with customers seeking discounts, Debenhams reported a 5.7% fall in like-for-like sales in the 18 weeks to 5 January. The group, which is closing 50 stores, said it would not &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}