NATIONAL: David Jones is bracing for a challenging fourth quarter to the financial year, following the release of its third quarter figures.
David Jones CEO Mark McInnes said the department store remained cautious about cycling the Government Stimulus on the fourth quarter of 2010, expecting challenging conditions to continue.
It has reported total sales of $417.4 million for the third quarter of the 2009/10 financial year, up 1.4 per cent on the same period last year.
McInnes said this result was in line with expectation.
"We have not seen anything in the market that we didn’t expect, other than unseasonably warm weather," he said.
He said growth projects for the 2011 financial year are on track.
"Our new Bourke Street Melbourne store is due to be completed and trading by first quarter 2011. This redeveloped store will deliver sales growth with the major EBIT benefit to flow through to our company in financial year 2012," he said.
The department store’s new Kotara store is due to be completed in November. The new Claremont store is due to open in March 2011.