Page 43 - min.soc 9 jan,2016
P. 43
BUSINESS A25
Saturday 9 January 2016
Clothing retailer Gap sales slump extends to December
A. D’INNOCENZIO own brand as well as Ba- percent, while Banana Re- The company’s total rev- prove business at Banana
AP Retail Writer nana Republic, said Thurs- public posted a 9 percent enue dropped 4 percent Republic. And executives
NEW YORK (AP) — Gap’s day that a key sales mea- drop. However, what’s to $2.01 billion for the five- have said they wanted to
shares dropped in after- sure fell 5 percent for the more worrisome is that Old week period. use low-price Old Navy as
hours trading after the re- five-week period ended Navy, which had been a The results underscore the a model for performance.
tailer reported a sales slump Jan. 2. juggernaut, suffered its sec- continued challenges that The company has worked
that extended into Decem- The decline was worse than ond consecutive monthly CEO Art Peck confronts in to improve its fashions and
ber that included even Old the 3.5 percent drop ana- sales drop. It saw sales fall 7 turning around the busi- trimmed its fleet last year.
Navy, once a bright spot lysts surveyed by Thomson percent in December, after ness. But it hasn’t been able to
for the company. Reuters expected, on aver- a 9 percent drop in Novem- The company has long improve sales. That has led
The San Francisco-based age. ber. The metric is based on been struggling to turn the company to discount
clothing retailer, which also By division, the key reve- revenue at stores opened around its Gap name- heavily, which erodes
operates stores under its nue measure at Gap fell 2 at least a year. sake business and im- profits.q
Toys R Us holds its own against online holiday competition
A. D’INNOCENZIO Cousins Stacy Levine, left, and Melissa Bragg shop at the Toys”R”Us store in Atlanta. Toys R Us re- in part by the strengthen-
JOSEPH PISANI ported stronger holiday sales despite intense competition from online retailers such as Amazon. ing job market.
AP Business Writers com. The U.S. added another
NEW YORK (AP) — Toys R Us 292,000 jobs last month,
reported stronger holiday (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal Constitution via AP) according to a report from
sales despite intense com- the Labor Department on
petition from online retail- especially true for toys and least a decade. market. That would be up Friday, bringing the total
ers such as Amazon.com. games related to the new Annual toy sales were pro- from a 4 percent increase to 2.65 million jobs for the
The company said Friday “Star Wars” movie, now jected to rise 6.2 percent in 2014 and mark the big- year. Since 1999, that’s
that sales at stores open at the most lucrative film of to $19.9 billion last year, ac- gest increase in at least 10 second only to 2014.
least a year rose 2 percent all time. It’s also a period of cording to the NPD Group years since the group has Still, the big question re-
from Nov. 2 to Jan. 2, com- revival for the toy industry, Inc., a market research tracked toys using its cur- mains whether the holiday
pared with last year’s holi- which is expected to wrap firm that tracks about 80 rent system. sales came at the expense
day season. From Nov. 29 up its strongest year in at percent of the U.S. toy This is being driven at least of profits. Toys R Us and
and Jan. 2, sales at stores others pushed heavy dis-
open at least a year rose counts this holiday season
3.7 percent. to pull in shoppers.
Industry analysts pay close “Holiday sales results thus
attention to these com- far are favorable, with the
parable-store sales figures unknown at this point be-
because they exclude the ing margins and there-
volatility of newly opened fore profitability, which
or closed stores, providing will provide a gauge into
a better picture of a retail- promotional impact,” said
er’s health. Moody’s Vice President
The results are an illustra- Charlie O’Shea in a state-
tion of advances made ment. Toys R Us said that
under new CEO David website sales were strong
Brandon. After leaving and demand was high for
shoppers wanting over the toys, learning products and
past few holidays, Brandon seasonal goods. Howev-
put a priority on ensuring er, it said there was weak
that the hottest toys were demand for electronics,
in stock in the final stretch video game consoles and
before Christmas. That was video games. q
Samsung Electronics’ 4Q profit misses expectations
YOUKYUNG LEE in operating profit for the The preliminary results ning halt. & Securities, said sluggish
AP Technology Writer October-December quar- showed that the com- Analysts have recently iPhone sales pushed down
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — ter, compared with 5.3 tril- pany’s annual operating lowered their forecasts on demand for memory chips
Samsung Electronics said lion won a year earlier. profit likely posted a slight Samsung’s earnings for the and mobile processors at
Friday that its fourth-quarter Samsung was expected to gain from 2014 after post- final quarter of 2015, citing Samsung.
profit rose 15 percent over report 6.6 trillion won in op- ing more than 30 percent weak global demand for They said Samsung’s con-
a year earlier, a smaller- erating profit, according fall in 2014 from 2013. personal computers and sumer electronics division,
than-expected gain as the to financial data provider But analysts estimated smartphones that hurt its which manufactures and
world’s largest maker of FactSet. that its annual net income semiconductor business. Its sells television sets and
smartphones and memory Sales stayed nearly flat at dropped for a second time memory chip and mobile home appliances, was
chips struggles to revive 53 trillion won ($44.3 billion), in three years in 2015 after processor business have likely its only division that
growth. also slightly lower than ex- hitting a peak in 2013, as helped partially outweigh showed a recovery during
The South Korean compa- pectations. It did not give explosive growth in its mo- its profit fall from sales of its the quarter thanks to sea-
ny reported in its earnings net profit or other details, bile business, which once own smartphones. sonally high demand and a
preview that it recorded which will be announced accounted for two-thirds Yoo Jongwoo, an ana- fall in LCD panel prices that
6.1 trillion won ($5.1 billion) at the end of this month. of its profit, came to a stun- lyst at Korea Investment helped save costs. q
