Thursday evening business bulletin
Jul 24 2008 By nebusiness
Sportswear retailer JJB Sports today said its estate of health and fitness clubs continued to grow revenues despite the current economic turmoil.
Like-for-like sales for the group were down 1.2% in the 12 weeks to July 20 - better than the 5.3% decline reported in May and helped by a 5.9% improvement at the clubs. Store sales were down 2%, compared with 6.5% previously.
The company said store fit-outs, management training and an incentive scheme for staff were helping the retail performance.
It added: ``JJB’s health clubs, with their strong value-for-money offering, have seen continued positive revenue and gross margins, and have only been slightly affected by the current economic situation."
JJB operates around 50 clubs, with new sites planned at Cardiff, Cambridge and Barrow-in-Furness in the next two months.
Panmure Gordon stockbrokers said it could see ``clear evidence" of an improved retail performance, but still downgraded its profit forecasts to reflect the worst retail conditions in 17 years.
Yellow Pages publisher Yell had some rare good news for investors today after first-quarter trading bettered the City’s worst fears.
The company has halved its dividend and dropped out of the FTSE 100 Index in recent months, but said it had made a good start to the year after strong internet growth.
Shareholders have seen the stock fall by more than 80% in the past 12 months but Yell’s update lifted shares almost 13%.
Yell said online operations, which include Yell.com, now accounted for an ``increasingly significant" share of group revenues, up to 16% from 12% a year ago.
The firm also surpassed City hopes with an 8% rise in underlying earnings to £160.8 million in the three months to June 30.
Chief executive John Condron expects further pressure on revenues as the year progresses, but added: ``Overall, Yell continues to show resilience despite the increasingly difficult economic times."
The FTSE 100 Index was pegged back by falling commodity stocks today after lower oil and metal prices sapped the London market’s recent momentum.
Crude oil trading at around 125 dollars a barrel - the lowest since the beginning of June - and easing copper prices dragged on heavyweight mining and petrochemical stocks.
By mid-morning the Footsie was 27.2 points down at 5422.7, led lower by prospectors Tullow Oil and Cairn Energy, which fell 46p to 719.5p and 147p to 2556p respectively.
Oil and gas firm BG Group was also on the back foot despite beating City forecasts with interim figures. The stock fell nearly 5%, or 55p to 1085p.
