25 FEBRUARY 1938, Page 44

BARICER'S RESULTS.

It was to be expected, since the indices of retail sales have not been as consistently good in Central London as in other districts, that the big department stores would not uniformly show profit increases. John Barker's profit of £344,817 was £45,384 less than in the previous year. But it is still amply large enough to enable the company to pay its usual 15 per cent. dividend and to add to its reserves. The company is fortunate in having made very generous contribution to rebuilding reserves in previous years, so that it has been able to reduce the appropriation this year by k5o,00o to £100,000 and to reduce the amount written off fixtures by £25,000 to £25,00o. The balance carried forward is also reduced by £2,307 to £191,868.