But the BRC said much of this could be put down to “back to school” shopping and said sales were still “on a downward trend”.. John Butler, UK economist at HSBC, pointed out that as a share of GDP the deficit had now shrunk to 2.5 per cent from 3.6 per cent.Meanwhile high street sales enjoyed their best month since March, offsetting recent surveys pointing to a slowdown in the consumer economy.The annual retail sales growth accelerated to 7.6 per cent in August from July’s 6.5 per cent, according to the British Retail Consortium. However, there was little sign of rising demand from mainland Europe.The ONS said the trend was for the global trade deficit narrowing further. The ONS said half of this was made up of electrical components.The major market for British goods was America, where sales have risen by £791m, or 12 per cent, over the past three months. Profits remain under the cosh.”Nick Verdi, at Barclays Capital, added: “Intensive competition means price pressures remain subdued and there is no reason to believe this will change any time soon.”The price cuts for hi-tech goods also improved the UK’s trade position as a surge in orders helped cut the deficit with the rest of the world.Britain’s goods trade gap narrowed to £2.5bn in July from June’s £2.8bn thanks to the largest surge in exports for five years.Sales overseas jumped by 8.5 per cent with non-European exports surging by 16 per cent – in both cases the best performance since January 1997.The biggest jump was in intermediate goods – components for use in factories – which rose 22 per cent. Shares in Bulmer, which have nearly halved in the past year, fell 49p to 231.5p, close to a 10-year low..

Britain’s beleaguered hi-tech manufacturers slashed their prices last month, delivering a boost to both inflation and the UK’s trade balance, new figures show. Further job cuts are likely.It added that since the year-end in April, its overall UK performance had been impacted by the “very disappointing weather” in June and July, although sales of Strongbow and San Miguel beer had improved recently. While Mr Hughes said the discovery did not “relate at all” to this year’s profit, he admitted that if the exceptional charge is taken in this year’s profit and loss accounts it would hit reported profits for 2003.The group, which has had a string of trading disasters overseas, said it was continuing to “actively explore” a number of restructuring options, particularly in relation to its international businesses, and was still seeking to reduce the cost base. “It was actually very helpful, if painful and not at all welcome,” he said.It is not known how many years the additional promotional costs related to or how the oversight happened, but the guilty parties had already been replaced, Mr Hughes added Neither is it known how the accounting hole will be treated. In July, it changed its auditors to Deloitte & Touche from the disgraced Arthur Andersen.Mike Hughes, the chief executive, said the discovery followed a management shake-up in Bulmer’s UK operations after problems in the UK take-home business.

These related to discounts in the off-trade promised to retailers to promote Bulmer’s products such as Strongbow cider.The company, which has issued three profits warnings in the past seven months, said its auditors were investigating what had happened and would report back to the market at the end of the month. The warning knocked 17 per cent off the group’s share price.
It followed the discovery of “previously unidentified” promotional costs totalling £3.3m. Since the end of the first half, the group has bought H&K Commissions, a chain of 35 bookmakers based in north-east London and Essex, for £20m.It added that its internet business, which made profits of £11m against £2.5m a year earlier, had benefited from the surge of interest in gambling during the World Cup, doubling its account holders.Commenting on the effect of the World Cup, Tom Singer, the finance director, said “we won on the swings and lost on the roundabouts” as people stayed away from betting shops to watch football.. “It is a move up the value chain into sport content,” Mr Harding said. He added that with another 34 greyhound tracks in the UK, he “wouldn’t rule out buying some more”.The group has previously said it intends to grow through acquisitions and sees scope to add about 400 betting shops to its estate without running into competition problems. The acquisition gives the bookmakers 7 per cent of the growing greyhound racing market. However, after £49.1m of exceptional costs relating to its flotation in June, the company reported a pre-tax loss of £12.2m.William Hill, which owns more than 1,500 betting shops, also revealed a move into greyhound racing with the purchase of the Sunderland greyhound stadium in a deal worth £9.4m.

The increase reflected a particularly buoyant first quarter, helped by favourable horseracing meetings at Cheltenham and Ascot and a strong football World Cup. The one-off boost to the industry from last October’s abolition of betting duty, which prompted punters to recycle more of their winnings, helped turnover to soar 47 per cent to £1.6bn. But the shares remained comfortably above their 225p-issue price, making William Hill one of the few successful stock market flotations this year.Andrew Lee, an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, said: “There was some confusion over the update, which came across quite negatively. But we said at the float that bookmaking is a risk management business. By definition some of the short-term results can have a disproportionate effect on results. But over the longer term it will average out,” he said.The group’s frankness, which boiled down to six weeks of the favourites romping home out ofthe past eight weeks, sent its shares 7 per cent lower to 253p.