Retailers not so down in the dumps
Grant Thornton study finds fewer negative announcements
Recent reports from retailers listed on the London Stock Exchange show that
rates of decline are less severe than expected, a Grant Thornton study has
found.
Grant Thornton’s index of quoted retail companies for the first quarter of
2009 found that 25 per cent of retailers posted negative trading updates,
slightly up on the 23 per cent in the same trading period the year before.
The situation has improved since the last quarter of 2008 when 27 per cent of
retailers reported negative trading statements. Grant Thornton partner David
Munton told the Birmingham Post that the Christmas 2008 results were nowehere
near as disastrous as analysts had predicted.