Sales jump 46% at Electronics Boutique

The computer games retailer Electronics Boutique yesterday shrugged off the market gloom by posting a 46 per cent jump in sales in the first few weeks of the second half of its year combined with an upbeat trading statement. Its shares closed up by 20 per cent at 107p.

While the company said it was not yet possible to predict what the long-term effect on consumer demand would be of the US terrorist attacks, it said its sales growth since 11 September was unaffected.

"Therefore whilst being alert to the potential impact of these events, your board currently expects your group to continue to build upon these strong results in the second half of the year and to produce a good outcome for the year as a whole," chairman Peter Lewis said.

In the nine weeks to 29 September, the company posted a 46 per cent jump in like-for-like sales and said its European expansion, where it has started to trade in both Spain and Sweden, was well under way.

Furthermore, it said it expected to benefit from a strong schedule of computer games releases in the run-up to Christmas including the launch of the Harry Potter game next month. It also said the worldwide launches of Nintendo's GameCube machine and Microsoft's X-Box console as well as the reduced price of Sony's PlayStation 2 would provide the business with an extra fillip.

In the six months to 31 July, Electronics Boutique recorded a pre-tax loss of £4.6m compared with a £6.5m loss last time. Sales were up 25 per cent to £143.1m, including a like-for-like increase of 23 per cent, and were dominated by sales of the PlayStation 2 games console.

The company's gross margin, however, slipped to 30.4 per cent from 32.1 per cent as a higher proportion of lower-margin computer games consoles were sold in the period.