Great Universal Ponders Selling Home Shopping Businesses

UK mail order company Great Universal Stores Plc, may sell its unprofitable home-shopping businesses in Austria and Switzerland, according to news reports.

GUS is reviewing its European catalog activities in Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden after merging the home- shopping unit with the Argos catalog-shop chain in June. GUS will retain its Netherlands unit, the report said.

Profit from home shopping in continental Europe fell 15% to $36.3 million this year on revenue of $336.5 million. Sales have stagnated in the face of increased competition from rival mail-order companies such as Germany's Otto Versand, the world's largest, and No. 2 Quelle, owned by KarstadtQuelle AG, the report said.

The report also said European rivals including Otto Versand, Quelle and France's Pinault-Printemps-Redoute SA may be interested in buying GUS's catalog operations in Switzerland and Austria.