Santa slump floors shops

Debenhams among biggest losers

THE high street has suffered its fifth year in a row of falling Christmas sales, a report has revealed.

Industry experts BDO said shop takings tumbled 2.3% year on year in December, the second worst festive slump since 2013.

Fashion stores saw a 3.8% drop, capping what BDO called a “miserable year” for clothing chains.

But online sales soared more than 21%, confirming a rapid shift to cyber shopping.

The figures came as shares in Debenhams crashed nearly 15% after it issued a profit warning.

The department store chain was left reeling after admitting it was forced to slash prices to drive Christmas gift sales.

Debenhams blamed a “volatile and competitive market” as UK takings fell 2.6% in the 17 weeks to December 30. The poor results come eight months after boss Sergio Bucher announced plans to try to turn around its flagging fortunes.

Rival Next also announced mixed results this week.

Elsewhere, accounts for budget chain Poundworld showed its losses had ballooned from £5.4million to £17.1m in the year to April 2017 after it was hit with one-off costs.

Bank of England data showed the growth in consumer credit slowed to a near two- year low of 9.1% during the year to November – good for shoppers’ bank balances but bad for retailers.

And a report from the British Retail Consortium and Nielsen found shop prices fell last month at the fastest rate since March.

Overall, prices were 0.6% lower than a year ago. Non-food prices fell 2.1% but food inflation increased from 1.5% to 1.8%.

Mike Watkins, from Nielsen, said: “Retailers have been keeping prices low to stimulate spending, which will undoubtedly have come at a cost to margins.”

Sophie Michael, head of retail and wholesale at BDO, said: “Consumer confidence is low, and shoppers have exercised extreme caution.”