QVC UK announces 8.4% net sales increase in 2006

6 March 2007:

Highlights:

• QVC UK has reported net sales of £331 million for 2006, an increase of 8.4% on 2005's sales;
• QVC UK hit over £1 million a day in net sales during the fourth quarter;
• Fourth quarter net sales increased by 8.7% compared to the same period in 2005 (2006: £103 million; 2005: £95 million);
• QVC welcomed over 321,000 new customers during 2006;
• www.qvcuk.com took 15.8% of all sales during December;
• QVC Video Centre, which was launched on www.qvcuk.com in November 2006, currently receives over 200,000 hits per week.

Mark Suckle, Chief Executive QVC UK, commented: "The QVC Video Centre offers on-demand video clips of product demonstrations on the website. Visitors can create their own programmes by choosing the video clips that interest them, putting them in control of watching what they want, when they want.

"Viewership of TV content is changing as broadband internet becomes more popular – according to the Office of National Statistics, 69% of households with internet access had a broadband connection by June 2006. This will change the face of all internet retailing as moving pictures and voice dialogue replace the current still images and text, a service we are already offering visitors to www.qvcuk.com."

With sales of fashion and beauty products increasing to 35% of the product mix during 2006, Judy Deuchar, Director of Merchandising, commented: "We're aiming to increase sales by strengthening our fashion brands to the level offered by our other product areas, for example, our Home Electronics division offers products from Panasonic, Toshiba, hp, Canon, Fuji and Electrolux."