Retailers show big spike in positive trading updates

A HIGHER proportion of retail trading updates were positive in the second quarter of 2009 than at any time in the last five years, new research has revealed.

A total of 70 per cent of management statements issued by retailers on the London Stock Exchange were upbeat, while no profit warnings were issued by listed UK retailers in the last three months.

The figure compares to just 23 per cent of retailers issuing positive updates in the same period in 2008, according to the report by accountants Grant Thornton.

Just 13 per cent of retailers posted negative trading updates during this period compared with 25 per cent in the same trading period last year.

Of those surveyed, 67 per cent recorded sales increases in the last quarter compared with 39 per cent in the first three months of this year – the highest increase since 2007.

David Bush, head of Grant Thornton's retail services team, said: "The results of this quarter's survey are in one sense surprising as they confound many other recent surveys. However, the results are consistent with much of what we are hearing when we talk face-to-face with retailers."