January sales slump follows positive Christmas performance
FOLLOWING a Christmas blow-out, Scotland’s food sales were hit by a New Year hangover in January. The Scottish Retail Consortium and KPMG Scottish Retail Monitor revealed total food sales were 5.8% down on January 2015. It was the slowest year-on-year performance on the monitor’s record for food sales.
In January 2016, total Scottish retail sales decreased by 3.8% compared with January 2015. That was the weakest overall retail sales performance since April 2012, but followed the best performance since January 2014 in the prior month.
David Lonsdale, director of the SRC, said: “There is no denying that these are dour retail sales figures for January. After the excess of the festive period, which saw solid retail sales growth in December, shoppers were clearly keeping a firm grip on purse strings and wallets in January.
“Food sales plunged last month, albeit after a strong showing the previous month. The total year-on-year change of retail sales of non-food items dipped too.”
Head of retail at KPMG David McCorquodale added: “Storms battered the Scottish high streets in January. Having enjoyed one of its best months for a couple of years in December, grocers will be hoping figures for January were a consequence of the deluge rather than the post-Christmas diet.”
