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Retail sales have suffered their worst month in nearly a quarter of a century, the latest data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG has revealed.

Overall retail sales fell 2.7% in May – the worst recorded decline since January 1995, excluding Easter distortions. UK retail sales fell 3% on a like-for-like basis year on year – the steepest like-for-like fall since December 2008, excluding Easter distortions.

Like-for-like food sales managed to post a 0.8% uplift in the three months to May and total food sales climbed 1.9% during the period, the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor shows.

The performance is below the 12-month total average growth of 2.5%, figure which Susan Barratt, chief executive of the IGD, said was disappointing.

“We’ve now entered a tough period for year-on-year sales comparisons with the Royal Wedding last May, the men’s football World Cup from June and exceptionally warm weather throughout last summer.

“Food and drink spending is being spread around with shoppers using on average 12 different stores per month, including for top ups and food on the go.”

Over the three months to May, in-store sales of non-food items declined 2.7% on both a total and like-for-like basis. This is worse than the 12-month total average decline of 2.4%.

Over the three-months to May, non-food retail sales in the UK decreased 1.1% both on a like-for-like and on a total basis – below the 12-month total average decrease of 0.4%.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “With retail conditions the toughest they have been for a decade, politicians must act to support the successful reinvention of our high streets and local communities.”

Business rates remained a barrier, preventing many retailers from investing in their physical space.

“We have a broken tax system, which sees retailers paying vast sums of money regardless of whether they make a penny at the till, and yet the government is failing to act. The legislation is falling behind the technological revolution,” Dickinson said.

Morning update

NewRiver REIT has sold a 70,000 sq ft Asda food store and petrol filling station at St Elli Shopping Centre, Llanelli, Camarthenshire, to a private investor for £17.9m.

The sale represents a net initial yield of 6.9% and a 1% discount to the March 2019 valuation.

Allan Lockhart, chief executive of NewRiver, said: “We are delighted to have completed this transaction, demonstrating significant progress against our target to recycle 5% of our portfolio this financial year.

“Since 1 April 2019, we have sold, or are under offer to sell, £30.7m of assets at a blended net initial yield of 5.8% and, in-line with our strategy, we have already recycled the proceeds of these disposals into our previously-announced acquisition of four retail parks, through a joint venture, for a net initial yield of 9.8%.”

AIM-listed Science in Sport (SIS) has opened a new e-commerce fulfilment facility in Nelson, Lancashire, to drive the online sales of its PhD and SiS brands.

The e-commerce facility, a leasehold property next to the premium performance nutrition company’s existing manufacturing and packaging site, started despatching orders on 1 June from the PhD website, phd.com.

Science in Sport said the 16,000 sq ft facility benefited from a highly efficient and streamlined layout with an integrated inventory management system.

Stephen Moon, chief executive, said: “Our objective is to grow PhD’s own online sales aggressively in the same way that we have grown sales from the SiS website, which were up 40% last year.

“The opening of the new e-commerce facility, which follows the relaunch of the PhD website, will provide the operational capability to deliver PhD’s online growth whilst also delivering efficiencies through the integration of PhD’s and SiS’s online fulfilment.”

The new e-commerce facility represented another important milestone in bringing together the PhD and SiS businesses and confirmed that the overall integration plan remains firmly on track, Moon said.

Magnit (MGNT), one of Russia’s leading retailers, has announced the resolutions of board directors taken at the meeting held on 31 May.

Charles Ryan was elected chairman, Jan Dunning, deputy chairman and Ilya Sokolov board secretary.

On the markets this morning, the FTSE 100 fell 0.6% in early trading to 7,143.3pts.

Early risers include PureCircle (PURE), up 1.1% at 275p, Marston’s (MARS), up 0.7% at 107p, Finsbury Food Group (FIF), up 0.5% at 76.2p, Greene King (GNK), up 0.4% at 635p and Imperial Brands (IMB) up 02% at 1,874p.

Fallers so far today include PZ Cussons (PZC), off 1.7% at 202p, Majestic Wine (WINE), down 1.7% to 262.5p as it continues to react to media coverage on its planned disposal of its bricks and mortar, Ocado Group (OCDO), down 1.4% to 1,155p and Associated British Food (ABF), off 1.1% at 2,472p.

Yesterday in the City

The FTSE 100 perked up 0.3% at 7,184.8p.

FTSE 100 fallers included Imperial Brands, (IMB), off 2.3% at 1,871p, Premier Foods (PFD), off 2.1% at 34.8p, Ocado Group (OCDO), down 1.9% at 1,171.5p and Devro (DVO), down 1.6% at 213p.

Stocks on the up included Britvic (BVIC), up 1.9% at 907p, Majestic Wine (WINE), up 1.5% at 267p, Nichols (NICL), up 1.4% at 1,775p, Associated British Foods (ABF), up 1.3% at 2.500p and Glanbia (GLB) up 1.3% at €15.1.

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