Foschini to expand with new stores

Reporting its results for the year ended March, the group said it was currently trading out of 1627 stores, an increase in trading area of 8.1% compared to the previous year.

Foschini saw a 6.3% decline in diluted headline earnings per share from 553 cents to 518.2 cents for the year ended March 2010.

Retail turnover grew 6.4% growth to R8.6 billion, with total turnover increasing from almost R10 billion to R10.78 billion.

A final dividend of 170 cents per share was declared, which brought the total dividend for the year to 288 cents per share, unchanged from last year.

Difficult year

The group said that although interest rates and inflation continued to fall, this did not translate into increased consumer spending, which remained under pressure.

"This financial year has been difficult and volatile with consumer spending worsening during the second half of the year, particularly in the mass middle market space.

The significantly higher than projected unemployment figures have also had a negative impact on this sector," the group lamented.

The Foschini group consists of 14 trading brands, ranging range from fashion, jewellery, accessories, cosmetics, sporting and outdoor apparel and equipment to homeware and financial services.

Sports store doing well

The group pointed out that its Sports division, trading as Totalsports, Sportscene and Due South maintained its position as a market leader, trading well in the current climate with turnover growth of 15.4% and same store turnover growth of 6.1%.

Its store base increased by 27 stores to 291 stores.

"The 2010 World Cup which gets underway in a few weeks' time should create more positive consumer sentiment, which together with the reduced interest rate and inflationary environment should improve consumer spending," the group said.

The group added that it had spared no effort to prepare itself for this historic event and that the three largest organisations active internationally in sportswear, Nike, Adidas, and Puma have officially recognised Totalsports as a preferred partner for the World Cup.