The winter weather ravaged Christmas sales at two leading retail chains with branches in Bradford.
As a result, music chain HMV, which owns Waterstone’s, is planning to close 60 stores as part of a cost-cutting drive.
Fashion chain Next said the snow cost it £22m in lost sales as customers stayed at home during the key Christmas trading period.
HMV, which has an outlet in Broadway, Bradford, as well as the Waterstone’s store in the former Wool Exchange, said its peak trading season was “significantly undermined” by severe weather.
No details have been given of which stores will close, but an HMV spokesman said they would continue the group’s strategy of combining multiple sites in a bid to drive down the rent bill. Wherever possible, staff at affected stores would be absorbed into the combined sites.
HMV reported a 13.6 per cent slump in like-for-like sales in the five weeks to January 1 and said profits for the year to April were set to be near the bottom end of City forecasts. It said it would seek a further £10m in annual savings.
Chief executive Simon Fox said the anticipated improvement in sales failed to materialise due to the weather and challenging markets. One area of encouragement came from Waterstone’s, which improved sales to show a 0.4 per cent drop on a like-for-like basis in the five weeks to January 1.
Next, which has stores in Darley Street and the Forster Square retail park, estimated 2.2 per cent of the season’s total sales were lost as a result of the snow, meaning like-for-like high street sales were down by 6.1 per cent between August and Christmas Eve.
But Next said it remained on track to improve profits by as much as ten per cent in the year to the end of January.
In contrast, Waitrose, which has a store in Otley, capped its best ever Christmas trading period by announcing expansion plans that will create 3,000 jobs at 39 new stores.
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