UK: Storms Ahead For Littlewoods Management

Retail experts were eagerly awaiting the outcome of today's annual general meeting of Littlewoods. Industry sources fear senior management may face a tough time from shareholders after speculation that August sales for the retailer were disappointing. Littlewoods declined to comment prior to today's meeting, because it is held in private, but industry sources fear Littlewoods may be another victim of tough times on the high street.The chain recently announced that it was cutting prices and shedding 250 head office jobs in a major shake-up that will also involve it leasing six new stores from C&A.It said it was repositioning its home shopping and high street business as a "better value" retailer, moving into the discount retail market, offering a `value' range to compete with the likes of Matalan and Bhs.Retail analysts, Verdict Research, said earlier this month that the UK's five big catalogue retailers including Littlewoods, were suffering because of online retailers and so-called direct order catalogue retailers such as Tesco and Next.