You are on page 1of 1

For all the latest news visit September 19, 2008 11

retail-week.com News International


Company results from around the world

Ikea to rein in expansion as In brief

housing crisis slows growth


Pharmacies in buy-out war
US pharmacy chains Walgreen
and CVS Caremark are battling
against each other to acquire
521-store US chain Longs Drug
By Nicola Harrison year to between 10 and 15 from Stores. As Retail Week went to
2010 onwards. It opened 22 new press, Walgreen had topped
Swedish furniture group Ikea stores last year and will open 20 CVS’s contested tender offer of
has revealed that sales growth more this year. Dahlvig said the US$71.5 (£39.87 a share with
has slowed over the past year US, German and UK markets a US$75 (£41.80) a share bid,
and that it will curb its expan- were suffering the most. valuing a deal at US$3 billion
sion plans as the global housing Whitefield said: “Ikea is open- (£1.67 billion).
market stalls. ing its stores in line with cash flow
Group sales in the year to volumes available. Profits will be PPR mulls Conforama sale
August climbed 7 per cent to down, so there is less money to French retail group PPR is
€21.2 billion (£16.8 billion) – the invest. It is a very good indicator understood to be considering
highest sales figures since the of sound financial management.” a sale of its furniture chain
retailer was founded in 1943 – but He added: “The US DIY Conforama. Last month, PPR
the increase compares with a 14 sector is suffering serious like- chief executive François-Henri
per cent rise the previous year. for-like declines and consumer Pinault threatened to close
However, industry observers Swede and sour: Ikea is still a market leader despite posting slower sales growth confidence in Germany is very poorly performing stores.
said these are still market-lead- fragile right now. Any [retailers] The group has already sold the
ing results. competitors whose like-for-likes underestimated the intensity of to do with homes are in a nega- Polish arm of the business.
MHE Retail chairman Edward will be at least 10 per cent down the slowdown,” he told a Swedish tive phase, particularly in those
Whitefield said: “These results at the moment.” newspaper. “This time it’s very countries suffering the highest Russian pharmacy sales up
are exceptionally good. 7 per Ike a manag ing dire c tor much about a crisis in the hous- sub-prime fallout.” Russian pharmacy chain
cent tells me they are adding Anders Dahlvig blamed turbu- ing sector, which of course hits The retailer never reveals its 36.6 reported first-half
new stores and just about hold- lent currency exchange rates and us very hard.” profits for “competition reasons”, retail sales up 48 per cent
ing on to their like-for-likes, the global downturn for the slow- Ikea will reduce its store open- according to Dahlvig, who would to US$448 million (£249.5
which compares well with its ing growth. “We have probably ings from between 20 and 25 a not rule out further job cuts. million). Retail EBITDA fell
314 per cent to a loss of
US$21.2 million (£11.8 million).

South Korean discounter to target China The retailer closed 71 of its


477 stores during the period.

South Korean retailer Shinsegae E-Mart, which sells everything rose 23.2 per cent in August to South Korea from 116 to 150. Macy’s to roll out SoHo
is to open 100 discount hyper- from food to electricals and Yn876.8 billion (£72.05 billion). The National Bureau of Sta- Department store group
markets in China by 2015 in household goods. It has 15 stores Shinsegae chairman Koo tistics reported that for the first Macy’s will roll out its new
an attempt to take advantage of in China at present. Hak-su is understood to want to eight months of the year, retail Bloomingdales SoHo store
the country’s fast-growing con- Last month, China’s retail sales open five more stores in China sales in the country climbed format following a trial in
sumer economy. grew at close to the fastest pace this year and open the retailer’s 21.9 per cent to Yn6.8 trillion New York. The US retailer plans
Shinsegae is to invest more in at least nine years as rising 70th store in the country in 2012 (£558.8 billion) against the to open three further stores
than Yn500 billion (£41.09 bil- incomes lift consumer spending. and the 100th in 2015. He is previous year. The figure is an by 2011, two of which will be
lion) in China over the next six According to China’s National also thought to want to increase improvement on the 16.8 per SoHo-style shops.
years to push its discount format, Bureau of Statistics, retail sales the number of E-Mart stores in cent rise for the whole of 2007.

Good site/bad site Finlay Clark, senior retail strategist, Bigmouthmedia

Moonpig.com Foot-locker.co.uk
Moonpig.com is a great example Foot Locker is one major high
of a pure play e-tailer that street retailer that has work
offers a convenient alternative to do when it comes to its
to the high street in the online presence.
greetings card market.  The first difficulty lies in
The product itself - finding the right web site for
personalised cards – is the UK customer, as the first
exceptional and reasonably page of Google results only
priced at about £3 for a gives you the US site. On the
standard-sized card, including US site I couldn’t find links
delivery. You can select from to the UK site and it requires
hundreds of cards, ­organised ­educated guesses to find
effectively around different the correct URL (www.foot-
­occasions, and the purchasing locker.co.uk).
process is slick.  When I eventually found it,
The site offers birthday the range of trainers offered
e-mail reminders – which are much more reliable than my memory. You can also store was unfulfilling. Furthermore, there was no delivery information on the product pages
addresses from previous orders – a great time saver.  and the store finder didn’t tell me what the opening hours were for my nearest store.
Checkout is simple, e-mail confirmation is immediate and delivery is swift. Top marks. Lots of room for improvement.

You might also like