Debenhams has warned that its earnings this year will be below forecast after less buoyant Christmas trading. This saw the retailer’s UK like for like sales for the 17 weeks to December 30th fall 2.6 per cent. Debenhams CEO Sergio Bucher said that tactical promotional action had helped group sales and that is was now focused on accelerating its turnaround strategy to generate a further £10 million on cost savings. The closure of 11 warehouses and 10 store reviews had already been announced as part of the plan.
“The market has been challenging and particularly promotional in some of our key seasonal categories and we have responded in order to remain competitive for our customers, which has impacted our profit performance,” Bucher said.
Despite this, he insisted the retailer was seeing “positive early signs” from his turnaround. “The market dynamics we have seen have reinforced our view that we need to move even faster to implement the cultural and organisational changes needed to ensure Debenhams is in the best possible shape for today’s fast-changing retail environment.”
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