We’ve now had a chance to look at trading updates from all the major UK retailers after the peak Christmas trading season.
In this article, I’m going to quickly review them, even those which aren’t particularly seasonal, and hopefully put them into categories!
(Disclosure: at the time of publication, I have long positions in NXT and BRBY; my co-writers Roland and Mark may have positions in other shares mentioned.)
The Good
Next (LON:NXT) (Disclosure: I’m long NXT.)
Reporting date: 6th January.
Sector: clothing, footwear, home products
Full-price sales +10.6%
Ahead of expectations
Our view: This was a typical Next update: clear, transparent, timely and ahead of expectations. Nothing to dislike. We stayed AMBER/GREEN.
Tesco (LON:TSCO)
Reporting date: 8th January
Sector: groceries and general merchandise
Like-for-like Christmas sales +2.4%
Full-year adj. operating profit at upper end of guidance.
Our view: The market didn’t like this “ahead” update, marking the shares down by 6% on the day, as investors apparently expected even better from this retail giant. With the company having arguably superior economics against its competitors, we stayed AMBER/GREEN.
Currys (LON:CURY)
Reporting date: 21st January
Sector: technology
LfL revenue +6% during peak season, +4% for H1.
Adj pre-tax profit to be £180 to 190m, ahead of consensus expectations of £180m.
Our view: We were positive on this through 2025 and it continues to repay this stance with resilient trading. I’ve been very grateful for management’s transparency, and reassured by their policy of keeping net cash on the balance sheet. The cost headwinds it has faced over the past year make its results doubly impressive in my book.
The Average
Topps Tiles (LON:TPT)
Reporting date: 7th January.
Sector: tiles (bathroom, kitchen, floors, walls)
Q1 like-for-like revenue +3.7%
Forecasts unchanged
Our view: There was nothing wrong with this update, and we stayed AMBER/GREEN.
Marks and Spencer (LON:MKS)
Reporting date: 8th January
Sector: clothing, beauty, home and food.
LfL food +5.6%, fashion/home/beauty minus 2.9%
Guidance unchanged
Our view: We stayed neutral, noting that unchanged guidance still means a 20% fall…
