Agenda: Asos, WHSmith update the market

BRC-Springboard

The latest BRC-Springboard figures for the month of September will be published on Monday.

UK retailers suffered a tough end to summer, with footfall across the board falling 1.3%.

At the time, BRC boss Helen Dickinson said the pressures on the retail sector showed little sign of easing, blaming Brexit uncertainty and rising costs associated with business rates.

Kantar-Nielsen

Tuesday brings the latest grocery sales figures from Kantar-Nielsen for the month up to early October.

Sales across the market in the month to September 8 saw a cautious rise of 0.5%, though volumes were flat.

The big winners in the period were Ocado and value players such as Lidl. Sales at all of the big four grocers were down.

There result also did not find any incidences of Brexit panic buying, though Kantar head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said stockpiling may ramp up the closer it gets to the October 31 deadline.

Asos

Wednesday brings the full-year results of embattled pureplay fashion retailer Asos.

In its third-quarter update in August, Asos issued yet another profit warning – with profit expectations for the year expected to be much lower at £55m – with expectations now between £30m and £35m.

As a result of the string of profit warnings, Asos saw its price drop 23.2%.

Asos blamed the profit warning at the time on a “collection of system errors” in its warehouse in Berlin and third-party brand issues with its warehouse in Atlanta.

WHSmith

The WHSmith finals will be published on Thursday.

In a trading update in August, WHSmith reported strong trading at its travel division and performance in line with expectations at its high street arm.

WHSmith reported that its hospital channel is now the second-largest business in its UK travel operation. Across the division, “gross margin is in line with plan” and the store opening programme at home and abroad is on track.