Sales flat at department store group but housewares perform well

29th June 2009 | retail | Department store group Beale says it will continue to adopt an aggressive promotional strategy by focusing on growing its buying in margin. The retailer returned flat sales of £26.7m in the half year to 2nd May, with pre-tax profit falling slightly to £543,000.

Housewares were among its strongest sellers, and negated the effect of a weaker performance from in-store concessions.

The group, which operates 11-stores, says it hopes to return to full year profitability – it made a loss of £1.5m in the year to 1st November 2008 – but has warned that it may need to renegotiate banking terms if it fails to meet its year end targets.

Besides its eight Beales branded stores, the retailer owns Denners of Yeovil, Whitakers of Bolton and Southport department store Broadbents & Boothroyd.