November 2012
Featured in this insight: Consumer goods & FMCG , Financial services, Retail
CBI research study reports strong increase in sales figures: An October study conducted by the Confederation of British Industry has reported a strong rise in the year leading to October 2012, and also expects growth to continue at a similar pace next month.
The Distributives Trades Survey, which covered the first two and a half weeks of October 2012, showed that almost half (47%) of retailers reported sales figures were up on a year ago, with less than one fifth (17%) stating sales had dropped.
The survey returned some surprising results, with the resulting balance of +30% was double the expected balance of 15%. This was also the fastest rate of sales growth since June 2012’s +42%. Projected results for November 2012 are estimated to be at the 27% mark.
To compensate for this rise, orders placed on suppliers increased moderately by +4%, against an expected flat drop of -2%.
High street retailers still considered the overall volume of sales to be below average for the time of year (-7%), despite this being the second consecutive month of sales growth. However, these results were the best since April 2012 for seasonal norm sales (0%), and the overall balance of the survey was better than the expected result of -11%.
There was considerable growth in specific retail sectors. Clothing and furniture and carpets turned up the greatest year-on-year increase (+57% and +58% respectively). This was the first sales growth for the clothing sector since July 2012’s result of +56%. The footwear and leather sector remained strong with a result of +39%, an increase for the seventh consecutive month, whilst grocers also reported a rise in year-on-year sales for the sixth successive month (+33%).
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