NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF


 Argos has raised £2 million over the past two years for its charity partner Macmillan Cancer Support, thanks to a host of fundraising activities involving staff and customers. Macmillan became the retailer’s charity partner in 2015. Since then, Argos said its colleagues and customers have thrown themselves head first into fundraising and volunteering with fancy dress events, sporting challenges and some shaving their head to raise money.  BHETA is in the running for two titles at the Trade Association Forum Best Practice Awards. Shortlisted for Event of the Year is BHETA’s Bunnings Forum which saw UK & Ireland MD PJ Davis make the first public presentation of the UK Bunnings business since its acquisition of Homebase. BHETA has also been shortlisted for the Membership Engagement Award.  Insight DIY – the brand behind the Kitchen and Bathroom Compare websites – has announced a new strategic


partnership with Brand View. The partnership will leverage Insight Retail Group’s (IRG) industry knowledge and customer relationships along with granular SKU-level data and analytics from Brand View, in order to help retailers and brands monitor the DIY and garden market in real time.  A survey conducted by Tradepoint revealed that the majority working in the trade don’t view Brexit as a major threat. In fact the survey showed many tradesmen are confident that Brexit will be a positive influence on the industry, with 45% saying their business won’t make a loss following the country’s decision to leave the EU and 22.5% believing their business would actually make money.  Argos said the week ended June 21 has been one of its busiest weeks for fans, selling 92,000 units on Monday, June 19 alone. On the same day argos.co.uk had 101 searches for fans every minute of the day. Sales of other outdoor items have also seen a boost from the heatwave, with garden furniture up almost 100%, and BBQ sales up 135%.


2 DIY WEEK 30 JUNE 2017


Strategic investments and competitive headwinds dent Carpetright profits


The flooring specialist revealed that its statutory pre-tax profit slumped 93% to £900,000 in the 52 weeks ended April 29 but it remains upbeat as figures were hit by the impact of costs associated with the transformation of the business and its store portfolio. Now in the third year of its transformation, Carpetright is making a number of investments in order to maintain the “strategic direction” of the business. Group revenue for the year


increased to £457.6 million (2016: £456.8 million) while the retailer explained that separately-reported items equating to £13.5m were incurred from rationalising its store estate and exiting leases on loss- making stores.


A net loss of £1.9m was made on the disposal of 25 properties during the year which the company says was principally a combination of surrender premiums and asset write-offs. Its continued rationalisation of the


estate will result in the number of stores falling below 400 by next year. The refurbishment of its store estate and introduction of new branding and store-fit was a major focus for Carpetright over the course of the year and it has now rolled out the new brand identity to almost half of its estate in the UK.


Carpetright reported a significant improvement in performance in the second half as the flooring retailer re-established trading momentum after what was “a difficult first six months”. Like-for-like sales in the UK in H2 increased by 1.8%, partially mitigating the decline of 2.8% experienced in the first half, to give a full-year decline of 0.5%, compared with a 2.8% growth last year.


The chain’s refurbished stores


delivered a like-for-like sales growth of 6.8% in the final quarter. The firm’s underlying operating


profit also took a hit, down from £17.8m in 2016 to £10.7 million


for this trading period, impacted by the depreciation of the pound and the margin effect of measures put in place to address increased competition, said Carpetright. It added that competition intensified in the market as “a new national competitor rolled out an aggressive store opening programme and a number of smaller players began competing


Debenhams hit by ‘volatile market’


The department store chain has warned investors that its pre-tax profit could be lower than anticipated if the current “market volatility” continues. A trading statement explained that the UK trading environment had been “more volatile in the second half of its trading year and that, if that trend continues, “the outcome could be towards the lower end of the current range”. Gross sales for the 15 weeks to June 17 were flat at +1% and up marginally at +1.7% for the 41 weeks to that date. Like-for-like sales for the same trading periods were reported


at +0.9% and 1.8% respectively. The tough trading has been blamed on a weak clothing market but Debenhams said the declines have been mitigated by the performance in its beauty, food and drink, and home and garden accessories categories. As part of an ongoing transformation plan, Debenhams has brought in two new directors to its senior leadership team: HR director Sally Hyndman and supply chain director Angela Morrison. In addition, Debenhams has switched to a single-warehouse management system and, in turn, begun


consultation on the closure of its Northampton distribution centre and 10 regional warehousing facilities. It also plans to streamline its offer and reduce stock options by around 10% to declutter stores.


Debenhams CEO Sergio Bucher said: “We are making progress in implementing our exciting and ambitious new strategy...as industry data has confirmed, May was a tough month for retailers and we continue to see volatility in trading week to week. As a result we are focused on delivering cost control and self-help.”


DFS issues profit warning due to “weak market”


Furniture retailer DFS reports that declines in footfall and customer orders hit sales in the second half.


In a trading update DFS said that despite highlighting an expectation for a “softer market environment” for the second half of the financial year, trading weakened beyond its expectations “with significant declines in store footfall leading to a material reduction in customer orders.” The upholstered furniture


retailer said it believes the trend is market-wide and “in line with industry indicators”, which it attributes to uncertainty regarding the general election and the macro economic environment.


DFS said: “As stated previously, the upholstery market does see short-term demand fluctuations from time to time within an overall historical trend of long- term growth.


“Driven by these short-term revenue effects we therefore now anticipate EBITDA over the full year to be lower than market expectations for the current year, and in the range of £82-£87m. “Notwithstanding this, we have maintained our investment in the business and are confident that we will outperform the market over the longer term, driven by our scale, business model and proven growth levers.


“We believe our expectations for the next financial year are realistic based on consumer confidence remaining broadly in line with current levels, given its consequent impact on upholstery demand. We expect continued strong cash generation that has allowed the recent announcement of a £20m special dividend in addition to our ordinary dividend.”


more actively at a local level.” Chief executive Wilf Walsh said: “I am pleased to report on a year of significant strategic progress. “While a challenging consumer


environment and competitive landscape remain headwinds, we are confident that the additional potential in our self- help initiatives will support an increase in market share.”


Dobbies plans to expand Monifieth site


Bosses at garden centre chain Dobbies are “fully committed” to Angus Gateway retail centre and submitted a fresh planning application to expand the site.


Permission was granted in 2014 to build additional retail units and expand car parking at the centre which is operated by Dobbies and includes both the garden store and the House of Angus outlet. That decision expired earlier this month. However, bosses at Dobbies have made clear they want to restart the expansion work at Ethiebeaton Park, Monifieth. “Dobbies is fully committed to Angus Gateway,” said development manager David Clark. “As we’re still currently going through the planning application process we’ll be in a position to give further details in due course.”


Dobbies said they wish to expand the car park before proceeding with the rest of the retail development in order to ensure that the construction of the latter has “minimum impact” on customer access.


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