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Body Shop: Christmas trading statement
Body Shop’s performance has changed little since the although comparable store sales over Christmas were up by slightly less (3%) than in the first half of the year (4%).
Sales growth in Body Shop shops varied across regions: it was weak in the Americas (-1%) and the UK (+1%) but strong in Asia (+7%) and elsewhere (+5%). The Body Shop at Home direct sales business continued to perform extremely well with double digit sales growth in all its regions other than the Americas (26% in the UK and 28% in Asia).
Overall performance has been similar to what we saw earlier in the year but effect on profits of the the weak sales performance compared to last year has been offset by lower costs and full year profits are likely to be little changed.
At 216p Body Shop is trading on a prospective PE of 14× times. This is reasonable against the sector. The shops in the UK and US are not producing much growth - however both the shops in Asia and Body Shop at Home are producing strong growth.
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