 David Jones’ Q2 ’13 sales fell 1.4% to $590.1 m and like-for-like sales also fell, compared to Q2 ’12. Sales for half year H1 2013 also slumped 0.7% to $1.0bn, the high end retailer said today. Sales (28 Oct- 26 Jan) were “adversely affected” by home categories and “in particular” consumer electronics which fell in the quarter and in the half year. Electronics continued to be “challenging and subject to ongoing deflationary pressure.” It said it was exiting DVD, Music and Gaming categories and was working on improving the profitability of sales and category mix. “We are selling what we have and not buying any new stock,” a DJs spokesperson told SmartHouse, which should be all gone by end of July. DJs is currently looking at allocating more space to categories like Beauty and Fashion and less on Home products. “Our focus is on improving the profitability of sales. We are exiting the low-performing categories of DVDs, music and games,” CEO Mr Zahra said. “We also continue to reduce the depth and breadth of our promotional discounting events and continue to work on changing our category mix to increase focus on higher margin categories.” Beauty and Fashion drove sales in the quarter, David Jones said. Shares fell -2.24% to $2.62 on the ASX today. |
