OWNERS of town centre department store Whitakers have predicted fierce competition this Christmas season, after revealing that sales were down in the past year.

In a trading update, Bournemouth-based Beale, which operates 12 stores nationwide including Whitakers, said that sales for the 52 weeks to October 29 were 1.5 per cent lower than in 2004.

Like-for-like sales for the last 20 weeks of the financial year were 0.6 per cent below those of the previous year.

The 2004 figures, which Beale called disappointing at the time, saw the company's turnover decrease by 5.5 per cent on 2003, to £65.3 million. Sales had fallen by four per cent to £109.6 million, but still generated a slim profit of £0.56 million.

The full 2005 results will be announced to the market at the end of January 2006.

The company said that despite the very challenging and competitive retail environment, womenswear had shown a growth in sales.

It said that there was a struggle in some areas of classic fashion, but that sales of exclusive label and contemporary ranges were very encouraging.

Beale added that trading in seasonal gifts had started well. The company intruduced stereo and television goods into three stores in the spring of 2005, though not Bolton. Beale closed its Walton-on-Thames store in June and sold the site for £575,000, although the company said it was looking for an alternative site in the area.

The company said: "We expect the trading environment during the all-important Christmas period to be extremely competitive and any increased promotional activity is likely to adversely affect margins. However, we are confident that we now have the right team in place to meet the challenges of what we believe will continue to be a difficult trading environment in 2006 and the boards attention will remain focused on the further enhancement of the product mix, control of costs and the improvement of sales and margins."