Sales

Australian upmarket retailer David Jones (ASX:DJS) have announced its fourth quarter Q4 sales report.

• Full year sales fell 4.6 percent to $1.868 billion.
• Like-for-like sales dropped 4.3 percent compared to FY 2011.
• Fourth Quarter (29 April to 28 July) sale fell to $455.8 million (down 1.3 percent.

JB Hi-Fi (JBH) reported last night that it expects its half year earnings to decline by 5 per cent as its shares dropped by $1.96 or 13.1 per cent to $13.04 in the morning trade. The electronics retailer surprised the market by experiencing a downgrade on what is supposed to be the busiest time of the year.

Australian oil refiner Caltex Australia (CTX) is expecting its annual profit to decline due to competition, refinery shut down and rising of oil prices and Australian dollar.As the situation continues, Caltex believes that their profit for 2011 will drop by up to 40 per cent.

Things are looking up for department store chain Myer (ASX:MYR) as chief executive Bernie Brookes reported that sales are tripling every week and could soon account for 5 percent of the company's revenue.

Despite competition from international online stores, Myer's online sales were growing even though worth only $5 million. Department store sales, on the other hand, were down 5 percent to $3.159 billion due to reduced sales of whitegoods.

Westfield (ASX:WDC) yesterday posted $650.9 million net profit for the six months to June 30 with retails sales in the country and New Zealand shooting 4.6 percent. Sales in the United Kingdom jumped 8.1 percent while US sales rose 1.2 percent.

Vale is preventing Aquila Resources (ASX:AQA) from shipping its coal until the two have resolved their dispute. According to Aquila's statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, it was again forced to cancel two coal shipments on top of another shipment earlier this month. The Perth-based company also does not expect to follow through with contracts before the end of the quarter.

Struggling after widespread flooding in Queensland, Macarthur Coal's (ASX:MCC) third quarter sales dipped to 61 percent on its Coppabella and Moorvale mines.

Significant delays in pit access were attributed to 466mm of rainfall during the quarter. The world's largest pulverised coal miner said in a statement that compared to 1.23 million metric tonnes last year, total sales fell to 476,300 metric tonnes at quarter end on March 31.

High volumes of scrap metal and steel production in the US could help Sims Group Limited (ASX:MYR) exceed its projected sales revenue. Over the pass three months strong performance from the North American division has driven a turnaround for the recycling group. The company will release its third quarter results on May 6.

Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) has announced a 7 percent increase in quarterly sales for its supermarket chain Coles as price deflation continued to influence sales performance. Coles' third quarter sales hit $5.852 billion to end of March, adding 7.1 percent on the third quarter of 2009-10.

Financial services organisation Challenger (ASX:CGF) raised its sales target by 28.5 percent after its life annuities growth hit record numbers in March. Quarter sales reached $740 million after a $5m advertising campaign in February.