Sales fall and restructuring hits Burberry's figures

Up market clothes retailer Burberry is forecast to report a 19 per cent crash in sales compared to last year after a tough trading season.

Its chief executive, Angela Ahrendts, is likely to announce at the third quarter results on Tuesday that its retail division, which includes directly operated stores, will post a healthy like-for-like sales increase of about 3.5 per cent to around £340m. By comparison, sales fell by 2 per cent in the first half.

But elsewhere, the picture has not been so good; partly because Burberry is still going through a restructuring which it hopes will cut £50m in costs this year and is reducing the number of small accounts. Shares have come off their peak, dropping again last week to 590p from 601p.

Morrisons, is expected to round off excellent Christmas sales figures when it reports on Thursday. Following on from healthy figures from both Tesco and Sainsbury's, Morrisons is set to report sales increase of around 4.5 per cent. Morrison is still without a chief executive since the sudden departure of Marc Bolland to Marks & Spencer, which has yet to announce when he will formally join.