LET'S HAVE SOME FUN

Wednesday December 22, 2004
The Guardian

Woolworths became the latest high-street retailer to come under pressure yesterday, with its share price sinking to a seven-month low.
Concerns about weak trading in the run-up to Christmas have haunted the retail sector over the past few weeks, prompting share price weakness in several stocks.

However, yesterday's fall in the Woolworths share price was not triggered by concerns about Christmas but by increased competition from Tesco, down 3.25p to 314.25p.

Having studied the latest TNS market share report, the US bank JP Morgan reckons Tesco has added about a £1bn of extra non-food sales over the past year. According to the analyst Philip Mitchell, this suggests Tesco has been taking business from Woolworths.

Although Woolworths supplies Tesco with all of its compact discs and DVDs, Mr Mitchell believes this is unlikely to offset poor trading in its stores.