It was bad news for department store group British Home Stores this morning, as it reported a drop of 34% in annual profits. However, Home was one of its star departments.
The chain, owned by tycoon Philip Green, saw its pre-tax profit for the year to March 31 fall to £32.6m from £49.4m in the pervious year. Like-for-like sales also dipped by 2.9%, while total sales, which were £860m, declined by 1.4%.

Speaking of the results, and current economic climate, Mr Green, who will not take a dividend from the business this year, said, "On a domestic front, the market remains competitive and unpredictable. The last six weeks have seen sales down 4%, reflecting not only the market but also the continued impact of the erratic weather patterns."

However, it may not all be bad news, as Mr Green said he had "been very pleased with the performance of some of our product categories." The good news for the housewares sector is that one of those categories is Home, which outperformed the overall results and actually saw sales increase by 6%.