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Profits at UK high street stores to plunge: report

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-09 14:03

LONDON -- Profits at Britain's high-street stores are set to plunge by 3.6 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) next year, as a 4 percent drop in sales is compounded by rising costs, according to a report published on Tuesday. 

Shoppers are pictured in a Marks and Spencer store in central London on November 20. [Agencies]

Retail researchers Verdict also forecast that with consumers needing to rebuild savings and competition from Internet retailers rising, sales growth for high street stores, excluding supermarkets, will not return until 2014.

"With such a dire outlook for the high street, it is inevitable that more retailers will go under," said Verdict Senior Consultant James Flower.

"The length and depth of the retail downturn will test even the strongest of retailers and some will not last the course, at least not in their present form."

Verdict said a 4 percent drop in high-street sales would be the biggest drop since its records began in 1965.

Forecasting six straight years of sales declines starting with 2008, it said sales at high street shops could fall by 17.6 billion pounds to 139.9 billion in 2013 from 157.5 billion in 2008.

The short-term profit outlook could be even worse, with rising costs likely to drive operating margins down by 3.8 percentage points to just 2.8 percent in 2009, Verdict added.