Kesa Electrical – the owner of Comet – said today it is shutting distribution centres and laying off 150 staff after a quarter of falling sales.

Kesa said the quarter ended 30 April 2011 saw Comet's like-for-like sales fall 15.2 per cent. Excluding a government-sponsored multi-media initiative which started in the fourth quarter, Comet's like-for-like sales fell 10.5 per cent.

Sales in France were better, but Spain had a poor period. Overall the group said like-for-like revenues were down 3.1 per cent.

Comet's web-generated sales were down 8 per cent but the company said problems with the launch of a new site were mostly fixed.

In the UK Comet will lose up to 10 stores this year and one of its three warehouses. Twelve out of 14 regional service centres will also close, the Telegraph reports.

Comet's press office was unable to confirm these figures by press time.

Kesa's press release is here.