Christmas goes quiet

Retailers face sluggish sales

AUSTRALIAN retailers face a “subdued” Christmas as households fork out more for utility bills and mortgage repayments and amid deeper structural issues, a leading analyst says.

Christmas is vital for retailers because December can account for more than a quarter of their yearly profit, according to Craig Woolford, an analyst at investment bank Citi.

Yet he notes that according to research house Shopper Trak, retail sales are down 2 per cent to 4 per cent on last year. based on Mulgrave Rd. “Everyone has dreams and aspirations, and mine was to one day own a store,” the Parramatta Park resident said.

“We’d been looking at Choices Flooring from afar for a long time, and decided to make the leap.”

Mr Gower has been in the

Retail foot traffic down 1 per cent.

Mr Woolford says cyclical and structural factors are at play, with retail spending slowing because households are forking out more for necessities such as utilities and home loan repayments.

National accounts released last week showed the household savings rate – measuring the amount households save as a proportion of disposable income – plunged to a decadelow is also industry for just shy of three decades, and has lived in Cairns for the past 20 years.

“I’ve been mainly doing a lot of work in the Torres Strait and Cape York,” he said. “We’ve done very well up there for a long time, so this seemed like the logical next step.”

A special ceremony was of 3 per cent in the June quarter.

It comes as Amazon ramps up online sales in Australia after launching its local distribution network this month.

Mr Woolford says the growing trend of consumers pre-planning their purchases online is a “structural element” that has resulted in less “window shopping” and therefore impulse buying.

With such a weak lead-in to Christmas, he cautions that held on Monday evening to celebrate the launch of Choices Flooring Cairns.

“It’s been busy … we’re really starting to ramp it up,” Mr Gower said.

He was buoyed by the increase in commercial construction in Cairns and expected to be run off his feet many retailers have too much inventory and therefore sales are weak and gross profit margins are under pressure.

“The signs are not great because the lead-up has been soft, discounting has been pulled forward and there are few ‘must-have’ items this year,” he says.

“Christmas Day falls on a Monday, which will result in a late surge, but the buzz is not strong so far.”

According to Mr Woolford, over the coming 12 months. “It has been stagnant in Cairns for quite some time, but it’s a good sign that there are now cranes in the sky,” Mr Gower said.

“Everyone is feeling very positive about Cairns.” the “hot gifts” look similar to last year, with items such as Lego, Hatchimals, wireless headphones and video games likely to be popular again.

He sees the greatest downside for Myer, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi and Premier Investments, but feels a January sell-off would be a buying opportunity in Premier Investments and Super Retail Group.

Mr Woolford is neutral on Woolworths and positive about the prospects for food retailing because discounting has eased and inflation is showing through in key categories such as bread and beverages.