David Jones falls into net loss

SYDNEY: Australian retailer to the affluent David Jones Ltd posted a widely expected annual loss yesterday, battered by a costly exit from a failed gourmet food business, but it forecast a rise in underlying profit of about 30% in 2004. 

David Jones is the smaller but more upmarket of Australia’s two main department store chains. And it faces a fresh challenge from larger rival Myer Grace, the department store arm of the country’s biggest retailer, Coles Myer Ltd.