Grinch steals Mr Price's Christmas cheer

Picture: Freddy Mavunda

Including "other income" of R284.4m from interest and insurance charges along with cellular airtime sales, the group managed to report a small rise of 0.4% in revenue to R6.4bn for the 13 weeks to December 31 from the matching period in 2015.

Excluding new stores, Mr Price's Christmas sales drop was 2.9%.

Higher promotional markdowns were required to clear inventory, which was reduced by 5% and is generally in better shape than at the end of the December quarter in 2015, Mr Price said in its sales update.

Sheet Street was the group's only chain to report comparable store growth.

Along with the basic sales growth figures, Mr Price's sales update provided figures adjusted for an extra week in the comparative figures.

The adjusted figures showed Sheet Street grew overall sales 5%. Its trading space decreased 0.2% from the previous December quarter. Comparable store sales growth was 4.8%.

The group's flagship apparel chain suffered a 1.1% decline in sales. It grew its trading space 4.9%, and its comparable sales growth was 3.3%.

Sales were down 0.6% at Miladys. The store kept its trading space level, but comparable sales dropped 1.2%.

Mr Price Home grew total sales 1.2% while trading space was down 2.7%. Comparable sales fell 1%.

In terms of trading space, Mr Price Sport was the group's fastest-growing chain, with a 6% increase in floor space. Its total sales grew 2.6% but comparable growth fell 4.9%.

Cash sales, which constitute 83.2% of total sales, decreased by 0.5%. Credit sales growth, which had slowed significantly as a result of consumer caution and legislative changes limiting new account applications, showed an improvement from the reduction at the half year, and increased by 0.3% over the corresponding period.