Department store chain Beales has seen trade fall in early 2009 due to bad weather and the economic situation.
Like for like (lfl) sales fell by 4.5% in the 19 weeks to 14 March a drop which was blamed on snow in February and consumer holding back on spending.

The chain operate out of 11 stores across the United Kingdom, eight of which trade as trade as Beales while the remaining three trade under their own individual name - Broadbents & Boothroyds of Southport, Denners of Yeovil and Whitakers of Bolton.

Beales chairman, Mike Killingley, said: "The board was pleased that, despite the difficult economic situation, first quarter sales were better than the industry average.

"However the gross margin was lower than the previous year due to promotional discounting in response to the competitive pressures on the high street over Christmas.

"Expenses were lower than last year as we continued to focus on cost reduction.

"There were further encouraging signs of the progress being made in the Group strategy of seeking better own bought margins; in the first quarter these were 4 percentage points better than in the same period last year."