While most department store groups celebrated a happy Christmas, there had to be one that woke up to an empty stocking.

That was the misfortune of Bournemouth-based tiddler Beales and sadly it’s an experience that the retailer has grown used to. Like-for-likes fell 6.4 per cent over the festive period, Beales revealed on Monday, along with a full-year operating loss on flattish sales.

Capitalised at less than£10 million, Beales is really too small to justify its main market listing. In fact, it’s too small full stop. Its 11 shops can’t compete with the greater muscle of 141-strong Debenhams, 61-store House of Fraser or John Lewis’s 26. Nor is its online presence comparable.

Similarly, its locations have not kept pace. Towns such as Kendal and Yeovil may be grateful for a Beales presence, but are unlikely to put sufficient bread on the retailer’s table.

Beales has also been too slow. While others have sourced directly from the Far East for years, Beales – which has used suppliers traditionally – is only now adapting its approach.

Beales is far from alone in facing such challenges. Its story is a parable of modern retailing, which has shifted with ever greater speed in the direction of the biggest multiple chains or those, such as John Lewis, that offer shoppers compelling reasons to choose them over rivals.

That story was also reinforced in Monday’s prelims, which reminded investors of the reasons for the closure last year of Beales’ Ealing store. The opening next year of the White City development would have, quite simply, pulled an already threadbare carpet from under that shop’s feet.

Following the results, it appeared that not a single City analyst issued a note on Beales. What is the point of it being listed?

New chief executive Tony Brown, who joins in April, will have to find an answer to that question. And some convincing reasons why shoppers should visit his stores.

Buy-back at WHS
As Retail Week went to press, there was mounting speculation that WHSmith would announce a big share buy-back.

Repurchases may be a feature this year, partly in response to shrunken valuations. Earnings-enhancing and providing a share price floor, buy-backs make sense – as long as they are not funded at the expense of business investment that might deliver better long-term returns.

George MacDonald is deputy editor of Retail Week