TWO survivors of the UK retail scene – Halfords and Mothercare – will reveal their strategies for the Christmas season in updates this week.
EasyJet profits are expected take off tomorrow after a buoyant year was rounded off by a last-minute rush for holidays following the Olympic Games.
The carrier upped its profit guidance in October as London 2012 proved to be far better than feared for the sector.
Ryanair has also upped its full-year profit guidance and said there had been a notable improvement in the market from the end of July and August, which continued into November. Numis Securities analysts are pencilling in profits at the top end of easyJet's range.
They said the launch of allocated seating across flights should also support profits in future years – possibly adding around 10% to earnings.
The airline admitted fuel costs were set to rise by between £30 million and £40m – on top of the £230m seen in the year to September 30.
Halfords will insist the so-called "Wiggins effect" is keeping the business on track on Wednesday when it unveils a slide in half-year profits.
The chain previously said it expects pre-tax profits for the 26 weeks to September 30 to be £40m to £42m, down around 20% on the same period last year. However, the profits are still above what City analysts had expected earlier this year when the company, which has 467 stores, was struggling.
The rebound was driven by a 14.7% surge in cycling sales, which the business put down to better weather and success in the Tour de France and Olympics from the likes of Bradley Wiggins and Sir Chris Hoy.
Mothercare investors will find out on Thursday if the loss-making retailer has weathered a squeeze in consumer spending. Experts predict half-year losses will narrow to £3m after its Jools Oliver and value ranges helped it return to sales growth.
Boss Simon Calver joined in April amid a dismal £103m loss, pledging to be ruthless on costs.
The City will hear how plans to cut store numbers from 311 to 200 by 2015 in a bid to save £13m a year are going. The estate will comprise 95 out-of-town sites and 105 high street locations.
Majestic Wine's half-year results are likely to reflect the impact of the washout summer weather when it reports figures.
While the group is expected to have seen sales boosted by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and European Championships, analysts believe overall summer trade will have been hit by the record UK rainfall.
Majestic, which has 181 stores in the UK, toasted a 15% rise in annual profits after sales rose 2.6% in the year to April 2.
However, like-for-like sales slowed to 0.6% in the first 10 weeks of the new financial year – reflecting comparisons with the Royal Wedding in 2011 – and trading is likely to remain difficult.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article