UK retail sales rose strongly between January and February, official figures show, following a sharp fall a month earlier.

The figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed a 2.1% rise in retail sales volumes.

In January, volumes fell by 3% – a sharp revision down from the 1.8% fall initially reported.

Economists said the rise in sales was expected, following suppressed sales in January due to the poor weather.

“Sales in January had been hurt very badly by the weather and the reintroduction of VAT,” said Sarah Hewin, senior economist at Standard Chartered, speaking to the BBC.

“We have to be cautious about saying that consumption is on an upward trend, however. Overall spending is still relatively weak.”

Compared with last February, sales were up 3.5% – much lower than forecast by most analysts.

In terms of value, sales for February were up 1.9% compared with January, or 5% up on a year ago.

Source : BBC News

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Fortunes at Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q, appear to be turning after the company reported pre-tax profits of £547 million, a rise of nearly 50 per cent, and increased its dividend for the first time in five years.

Kingfisher, which is the largest DIY company in Europe and the third largest in the world, said that it had been buoyed by improvements to its internal operations and a new executive team, and plans to nearly double its capital expenditure to £400 million.

Sales across the group rose £10 billion to £10.5 billion for the 12 months to January 30, though like-for-like revenue, which strips out turnover from new stores opened during the year, fell by 1.5 per cent.

UK sales rose by 1.4 per cent, taking total sales for the year to £4.4 billion, although there was a 65 per cent rise in retail  profit owing to “margin and cost initiatives”.

The group said that it had halved losses in its struggling China operation.

The “green pound” was a notable factor in profits as sales of eco-products totalled more than £1 billion for the first time.

Kingfisher announced that it would be increasing its final dividend by 5 per cent to 3.575p but warned that it remained “cautious” on the outlook for consumer demand.

Ian Cheshire, the group chief executive, said: “Profitability, cash generation and return on capital all grew in the UK and Ireland, France, Poland Turkey and Spain. Encouragingly, losses were significantly reduced in China as our turnaround plan progresses.”

“In generally weak consumer markets our self-help initiatives underpinned our robust performance, driving a higher gross margin, more cost efficiency and lower working capital.”

Kingfisher said that it was continuing with plans to broaden its product range and to expand further in France and Eastern Europe, with 15 new stores planned for Poland, Turkey and Russia. About 60 per cent of its business is overseas.

Kingfisher said that it had managed to reduce its net debt by three quarters and that it had a free cashflow of £761 million.

Source : The Times.

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The Apprentice may have to be pushed back to next year, depending on the outcome of the General Election.

The sixth series of the popular BBC One series has already been postponed from this month because of strict rules regarding political bias during election campaigns. Since last year’s series, Sir Alan Sugar has started working as a business tsar for the government.

Now The Sun is claiming that if the election results in a hung Parliament, the BBC will be forced to wait until 2011 before the programme can be shown.

A hung Parliament, where neither of the main parties has an outright majority, would result in a coalition government and would likely mean another election later in the year.

A source told the paper: “The Apprentice lasts for three months so it will prove very hard to find a slot for it this year if there is a hung Parliament.”

Last year’s series saw Yasmina Siadatan triumph in the final over Kate Walsh. The new series will see Karren Brady replacing Margaret Mountford as one of Sir Alan’s advisors.

Source : Yahoo News.

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