Agenda: Dunelm, N Brown and Quiz update the market

BRC-KPMG

The latest BRC-KPMG sales figures for September are released on Tuesday.

Total retail sales were flat during the four weeks to August 24 compared with an increase of 1.3% for the same period the previous year.

However, sales were above the three-month average of -0.4% but below the 12-month average of 0.4% – making it the lowest 12-month average on record.

UK retail sales decreased 0.5% on a like-for-like basis compared with August 2018, when they increased by 0.2%. This was above the three-month average of -0.7% but below the 12-month average of -0.2%.

Dunelm

Dunelm posts its first-quarter results on Thursday.

The homeware retailer’s total like-for-like sales increased 10.7% to £1.1bn during the 52 weeks to June 29 as both online and store like-for-likes increased 35.1% and 7.7% respectively during the same period.

Chief executive Nick Wilkinson attributed the strong results to the progress the retailer has made with its “multichannel proposition whilst maintaining the breadth and depth of [the] specialist customer offer in homewares”.

Dunelm’s profit before tax jumped 23.4% to £125.9m as the retailer focused on its ‘Customer First’ strategy and the “core Dunelm business”.

N Brown

N Brown posts its interim results on Thursday.

The fashion groups sales fell in its first quarter despite a healthy performance across its digital channels.

Total revenue fell 3.8% despite being boosted by an 8% financial services rise.

Product revenue was down 5.4% as digital revenues climbed 3%. Digital now represents 83% of total revenue, up from 74% in the previous first quarter.

Menswear outperformed womenswear, growing 7.7%, while the latter shrank 3.3%. Both categories experienced digital growth.

N Brown owns the brands JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo.

Quiz

Quiz updates the market on Friday.

The fashion retailer has said it expects to return to profitable growth in the medium term, despite reporting tough trading over the summer months.

In a trading update in August, Quiz chair Peter Cowgill said the “challenging trading conditions reported” at the time of the retailer’s last update in June had “persisted over the summer months”.

He also said “consistent with the widely reported conditions on the UK high street”, the retailer had seen a “reduction in-store footfall during the period compared to the previous year”.

At its most recent update for the year to March 31, Quiz reported a 97% slide in pre-tax profits to £0.2m, when sales rose 12% to £130.8m.