Sorry, I shouldn't try humour... So far just a 'flurry' of companies have come out and discussed their Christmas performances - JJB, Mothercare, Next & HMV were all quick to press announcing poor sales and squarely laying the blame on the bad December weather - on the surface of it these tales of difficult weather are quite easy to believe, but while JJB is reporting snow affected sales JD Sports has delivered strong like for like sales growth, and today independent figures of retail trade are released showing just a modest 0.5% fall in December sales.
With fascias such as JD Sports delivering strong growth and JJB falling sales clearly there is something more than just snow fall going on. What tends to happen in a period of challenge is that the strong get stronger and the weak struggle and ultimately might fail. This Christmas, and for much of 2011 there will be many challenges and undoubtedly some firms will fail, but lets not pretend it is the white stuff causing it - ultimately it is sub-standard management at the very top.
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