General Retail & Luxury Weekly: Retail & Luxury Look of the Week

Research evidence excerpt

General Retail & Luxury Weekly: Retail & Luxury Look of the Week

Deutsche Bank

Research

Europe Industry Date

15 May 2026

Retail General Retail &

Retail - Non Food Industry Update

Luxury Weekly

Retail & Luxury Look of the Week

Adam Cochrane

The week in one page Research Analyst

At the global level the Middle East tensions have stepped up towards the end of the +44-20-754-17812

week with the crude oil price bouncing back towards $107 per barrel and European

Benjamin Yokyong-Zoega

stock markets flat to down -1%. The fear that April retail sales will take a step down Research Analyst

was supported by the BRC (down -3.4%) and Barclaycard (down -0.7%) +44-20-754-12338

commentary in the UK and 3I saying Action sales had taken a big step down in

Do-Hyun Yoo

Germany since the last week of March. The consumer confidence indicators had

Research Associate

already taken the step down but there was a hope that this would not fully translate

+44-20-754-19487

into weaker retail sales. Wickes reported a weaker 1Q than expected with volatile

sales and the big ticket order book turning negative although there is still some Shwetha Ramachandran

weather noise in the numbers. As we get more companies reporting in coming Research Associate

weeks the picture will become clearer but we expect to hear about sequential

weakness from most companies.

The Retail sector was down 2-5% this week with the outperformers WOSG +11%

(on strong trading update), ASOS +9% (cash inflow from sale of Lichfield

warehouse), Puma +1% (new CFO buying shares) and the underperformers Wickes

-17% (weaker than expected 1Q trading update), 3I -15% (slowdown in Action

current trading), Douglas -11% (2Q results confirming market pressures), B&M -9%