German Apparel Retail - tough comps

All,

Meanwhile in Germany:

YoY Apparel Retail Sales appear to be falling fast (see graph).

The above graph of YoY growth figures is worsened by the strength of the same weeks in the prior year (small numbers below).

German summer breaks are not uniform, but are set for each state differently to avoid single peaks of traffic and other patterns. However, in general the back-to-school traffic takes place during august and summer holidays are in general taking place a week or two earlier than in the UK (that’s why the Germans already have their towels on the Beach when the Brits arrive).

Either way, the late summer collection sales / Autumn Winter are not doing particularly well, but its only a disaster for those expecting last year’s miracle to return. 

Note that Takko did extremely well in that miracle last year.

Wolfgang