Home Retail Group profit falls again

Home Retail Group, Britain's biggest household goods retailer, posted a fifth straight fall in annual profit, as its customers continued to bear the brunt of the economic downturn.

The owner of Argos stores and the Homebase DIY chain said on Wednesday it made an underlying pretax profit of £91million for the year to March 2.

Though that was in line with company guidance and analysts' consensus forecast of £90million, it was 10% down from the £102m pounds made in the 2011-12 year, which itself was a 60% fall on 2010-11.

In the 52 weeks to 2nd March 2013Homebase sales have dropped by 5.2% to £1,431m. LFL sales declined by 4.9%.

Argos sales have increased by 1.5% to £3,931m. LFL sales rose by 2.1%.

Many British retailers have been finding the going tough as consumers battle a prolonged squeeze in household incomes.

Home Retail has been particularly hard hit because its mainly low-income customers have suffered most and because it faces intense competition from specialist stores, supermarket chains such as Tesco and online retailers like Amazon.

For the full results publication please visit our Industry Articles pages: http://www.insightdiy.co.uk/articles.asp

Source : James Davey & Paul Sandle – 4-Traders
www.4-traders.com/HOME-RETAIL-GROUP-PLC-9590222/news/Home-Retail-year-profit-falls-again-16802834/)