LBE.L Regulatory News (LBE)

13 Jan 2006 07:00

Liberty PLC13 January 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE13th January 2006 LIBERTY PLC: CHRISTMAS TRADING STATEMENT - SALES ADVANCE BY OVER 5% Liberty Plc ("Liberty" or "the Company") today announces that sales at its WestEnd emporium for the six weeks to Christmas showed a 5.4% advance over thecomparable period a year ago, further building on the significant growthachieved in 2004. The store also experienced one of its best performances in the week immediatelyprior to Christmas with a 20.4% increase in sales over the same week a year ago,benefiting from an extra trading day. Since Christmas the sales momentum has continued with a 3% increase in volumefor the first full week of post Christmas sales compared to the same period ayear ago. Iain Renwick, Liberty's Chief Executive, commented: "Our retail tradingperformance through Christmas has been very encouraging, all the more so inlight of the post-July trading climate which has made London's West End achallenging retail environment. "Liberty has built on last year's excellent Christmas trading performance whichhas been underpinned by our successful new luxury branded goods collection,Liberty of London, which has been very well received by customers and the mediaalike. "Although we view the year ahead with some caution, we will be completing theconsolidation of our retailing activities into the iconic Tudor building byApril 2006. While this is expected to reduce headline gross sales figuresslightly, we are confident of the positive effect that this will have on bothsales densities and profitability over the full year,"concluded Renwick. This sales increase continues to reflect Liberty's increasing popularity as adestination-shopping venue together with the highly successful launch of theLiberty of London luxury goods brand. The pre-Christmas sales performance wasnot as a result of aggressive discounting and demonstrates the success of thestrategy being followed by the management team Four key areas dominated the continued improved performance: Beauty andCosmetics; Ladies Accessories; Jewellery; and, Menswear. As with last year, this December's results followed a strong performance in theAutumn/Winter season, where in spite of the effect of the July bombings inLondon, the store's retail sales for the 26 weeks to 31st December 2005 were1.4% higher than the previous year. Ends. Contact:Richard Balfour-Lynn, Chairman, Liberty. Tel: 020 7706 2121Iain Renwick, Chief Executive, Liberty. Tel: 020 7734 1234Baron Phillips, Baron Phillips Associates Tel: 020 7920 3161 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange