Current Comet owner hit with half year loss

Kesa Electricals, the for-the-moment owner of UK retailer Comet, has announced a loss for the first six months of the fiscal year, as consumer appetite for big electronics flags. The group made a loss before tax of €147.7m in the six months to the end of October this year, compared to a profit of €27.2m in the same period of …

[Mike Hunt 1]

Just a thought....

Dear owners of Comet,

If your current slew of adverts is right then your shop staff seem to be spending most of their time making giant Christmas trees out of ice cubes. Now, whilst this might be a terrific team and morale building exercise, it isn't doing much for business - there never seems to be any customers in the advert stores - just staff cocking about.

Signed

Mr A Customer

[Anonymous Coward]

ho,ho,ho

i concur.

Mr X Customer, no relation.

[mfraz]

The real reason

"as consumer appetite for big electronics flags"

I'm sure that it is more due to everyone realising they can buy the same product cheaper on line and Comet haven't got a clue about the items they are selling.

Plus they seem to want to sell you Monster this-and-that with everything.

[J. R. Hartley]

It's no wonder they're in trouble if they're focusing on consumer appetite for big electronic flags! These are austere times and most households cant afford to operate them these days.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Hailey's Comet...

"Kesa is offloading Comet to private equity firms Hailey Holdings and Hailey Acquistions."

I take it their shareholders can't expect a return until 2061.

[Harry]

"planning to sell off Comet for just £2"

Shouldn't that be £1.99 ?

But I shudder to think how much they will ask for the three year warranty that the salesman will try to insist on you having along with it.

[Anonymous Coward 101]

"Kesa is offloading Comet to private equity firms Hailey Holdings and Hailey Acquistions"

So why are Hailey Holdings and Hailey Acquistions buying Comet if it just loses money hand over fist?

[Anna Logg]

Presumably they'll shut down all but the most profitable / least lossy stores and flog off any tangible assets,

[Anonymous Coward]

@Mike Hunt 1

Indeed. All that cocking about with hairdryers and the like probably ups the electricity bill quite a bit too. Haven't their staff been told about global warming?

[Andy Davies]

they deserve to go down the pan - as does any company that demands full documentation and all original undamaged packaging before they will refund a faulty item, and challenges customers to take them to court if they don't like it.