Gloomy New Year looms for Blacks

It was the third warning in six months from Blacks and its shares tumbled 35p to 362p.

The outdoor and leisure retailer blamed mild weather for a 6% fall in underlying festive sales.

Reclusive multi-millionaire Mike Ashley is a 30% shareholder and is rumoured to be planning to reverse his Sports World empire into Blacks.

House of Fraser’s new boss John King said the department store group, which recently went private, had a ‘terrific’ Christmas. Underlying sales rose 7.3% in the four weeks to December 30.

New Look was also celebrating, with party dresses flying off the hangers, lifting underlying sales by 3.2%. A 2007 return to the stock market is possible.

Less impressive was fashion retailer (up 6p to 187p) where sales were down 4%. But it signalled an improving trend and profits are on track.

Other stories:
Blacks hit by camping slowdown
SportsWorld in sales surge ahead of float

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Gloomy New Year looms for Blacks

It was the third warning in six months from Blacks and its shares tumbled 35p to 362p.

The outdoor and leisure retailer blamed mild weather for a 6% fall in underlying festive sales.

Reclusive multi-millionaire Mike Ashley is a 30% shareholder and is rumoured to be planning to reverse his Sports World empire into Blacks.

House of Fraser’s new boss John King said the department store group, which recently went private, had a ‘terrific’ Christmas. Underlying sales rose 7.3% in the four weeks to December 30.

New Look was also celebrating, with party dresses flying off the hangers, lifting underlying sales by 3.2%. A 2007 return to the stock market is possible.

Less impressive was fashion retailer (up 6p to 187p) where sales were down 4%. But it signalled an improving trend and profits are on track.

Other stories:
Blacks hit by camping slowdown
SportsWorld in sales surge ahead of float

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.