Woolies back from the brink with a sales success story

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Chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones said the 821 stores have returned to profitability despite a generally awful Christmas for retailers.

Music and entertainment arm 2entertain's sales were up 11.7% in the 49 weeks to 12 January thanks to worldwide demand for Planet Earth, Little Britain and Dr Who DVDs. Sales at the wholesale publishing arm, which includes book wholesaler Bertram, rose 46.7%.

But the real success story was at the retail chain, which much of the City had written off. Citigroup's Bruce Hubbard said in December that he doubted the retail chain "can lay claim to any equity value".

The shares, which plunged as a result of such sentiment, today fell ½p to 9½p despite the better news.

Bish-Jones did not crow about the results, but let the turnaround speak for itself. He said of the analysts: "Everyone is entitled to their view. It is not germane for me to pass comment on the share price, all I can do is run the business".

Pali International had forecast profits for the group of £30 million this year, but upgrades are likely today.

Like-for-like sales fell 3.2% in the stores but that largely reflected a strategy of avoiding competing in areas where prices were tumbling, such as flat-screen TVs.

Woolies remains concerned about consumer confidence, but can claim to have emerged as one of the retail winners from the Christmas period.

"Christmas was a very challenging time. However, all parts of the business took steps forward," said Bish-Jones. "We are pleased that the progress made across the group through the year is expected to lead to an improvement in profitability."