THE advent calendars have been opened, and the festive season is under way. Christmas shoppers are out in force in what is expected to be another December retailing record.

It is not the season to be jolly at Austin Reed, however. The clothing retailer announced a profits warning that poor sales in November will be unlikely to be improved upon this month. Austin Reed, which also runs the Country Casuals chain, was Winston Churchill's favourite tailor. How times have changed.

The news sparked concern that trading at other retailers, including Marks and Spencer, Next and House of Fraser, may also be suffering from an unseasonably warm autumn, but only time will tell.

Having a better time of things, however, have been the food retailers. With Christmas puddings, mince pies and other festive goodies gaining prominence on the shelves, the supermarkets are gearing up for huge turnover in their stores. The booze business usually does well over Christmas, with spirit sales at their peak. Diageo and Allied Domecq are expected to benefit.

Mobile phones are back in vogue this Christmas. The craze to have the latest technology has led to a reported shortage of camera phones.

With handset costs subsidised by the airtime providers, the turnover in upgrades to new phones is rapidly increasing. Both mmO2 and Vodafone have benefited from the need to obtain the trendiest polyphonic ring tone, and the shares have zoomed in the past few weeks. So much so, that Vodafone has overtaken BP to take second place in the biggest companies list of the FTSE 100.

Today sees results from Scottish and Newcastle. It recently sold its 1,400 pubs for £2.5bn, so cash is not a concern - the question is how it will spend its windfall.

Newcastle Brown Ale is apparently selling well in the US and Russia, but otherwise on the trading front, the news may be flat, if not bitter.

Today also sees half year results from Newcastle accountancy software producer Sage. It has already said that profits will be up by about 12 per cent at £151m, but if the economy is starting to pick up, as recent data suggests, then one would suspect that Sage's customers - typically small businesses - will be feeling a lot more confident, and that may well be reflected in current trading.

As winter ice appears on our roads, you are probably not thinking about ice cream, but it was only a few months ago in the summer heatwave when we could not get enough of the stuff. Leeming Bar ice cream maker Richmond Foods kicked off the week's figures yesterday with tasty results for the year to the end of September. Although the company has good all-year-round sales, Richmond Foods will have been delighted by the Indian summer. The name that springs to mind if considering investing in turkeys is Bernard Matthews. Unfortunately, the company is no longer quoted on the Stock Exchange. Farming tycoon Matthews shelled out £2 and ten shillings to start the business in 1950, and floated the business in 1971. Concerned about the low valuation accorded to the shares in the dot.com boom, he bought the company back in 2000 in a £232m deal.

For investment advice contact Anthony Platts on 01642 608855.

Published: 02/12/2003