UK retail sales have shown their strongest underlying year-on-year increase since January 2014 in the latest month.
Figures published today by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) show that the value of sales in June was up by 2.9 per cent on the same month of last year. This sharp increase was partly the result of a weak performance by the UK retail sector in June 2014.
Warm weather provided a fillip to clothing sales late in the June 2015 trading period, which ran from May 31 to July 4. The BRC also saw signs that the value of clothing sales had been boosted by retailers bringing forward their summer sales.
The sunshine also helped do-it-yourself and gardening retailers. And the BRC cited strong sales of paddling pools and trampolines in the week ending July 4.
Furniture sales were strong in the June trading period.
The BRC said that food sales value had shown a year-on-year rise for a seventh consecutive month, excluding distortions related to the timing of Easter.
And it noted that, stripping out Easter-related distortions, the 2.9 per cent year-on-year rise in total UK retail sales value in the June trading period was the sharpest since January 2014. The BRC noted that this increase was also ahead of the 12-month average of 1.6 per cent for year-on-year growth in sales value.
In May, UK retail sales value had been up by 1.1 per cent on the same month of last year.
The Scottish Retail Consortium is due to publish June sales figures for Scotland later this month. In recent times, year-on-year movements in sales value have been consistently weaker in Scotland than in the UK as a whole.
Helen Dickinson, director general of the BRC, said: "The retail industry performed strongly last month, experiencing the best overall sales growth in 18 months, excluding Easter distortions, albeit on the back of a weak June last year."
She added: "Food sales grew for the seventh month in a row, while June also brought with it a boost for the non-food categories, with furniture doing particularly well. Fashion sales were also up, but this was likely helped by several retailers entering summer sales a little earlier this year."
Edinburgh-based David McCorquodale, head of accountancy firm and BRC survey sponsor KPMG's UK retail sector practice, said: "As the Wimbledon tennis championships got under way, June served up an ace for sales of non-food items. After cooler May weather had dampened fashion sales, the glorious sunshine and some significant promotional activity...lured consumers into a rush to update summer wardrobes."
He noted that sales of seasonal outdoor ranges such as paddling pools and trampolines had soared towards the end of the June trading period as consumers looked to make the most of hot weather.
Mr McCorquodale added: "The grocers continued to fight to make headway against a deflationary tide."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article