Littlewoods and Very owner Shop Direct enjoys Christmas sales bounce
Very and Littlewoods operator Shop Direct saw a rise in revenues over the festive period, as Black Friday discounts and Christmas shopping boosted sales.
Revenue climbed 3.7 per cent year-on-year for the seven weeks to 28 December, with clothing and footwear seeing a particular bounce, rising eight per cent at group level.
Very, the company’s largest and fastest growing brand, fuelled the revenue rise with 8.8 per cent year-on-year growth.
Read more: Shop Direct swings to a loss as rising costs and PPI claims hit profits
However, in a statement today chief executive Henry Birch said: “I am delighted that against a challenging retail backdrop we delivered a record Christmas period in terms of total revenue whilst maintaining retail margin rate in line with last year.”
He added: “Throughout our peak trading period we focused on delivering a great customer experience and curating the right deals for our customers and our business during our extended Black Friday event.
“We put more emphasis on December than ever before and saw encouraging growth in key departments like sportswear and toys.”
Read more: New Look aims to cut debt by £1bn in restructuring plan
The results come on the same day as major british retailer New Look said that it would aim to cut its debt by £1bn as part of a restructuring deal agreed with investors.
The company has agreed a debt-for-equity swap proposal to reduce debt from £1.35bn to £350m. The firm also announced a new capital raise of £150m through the issuing of new bonds.
The firm blamed its situation on “increased headwinds” at the end of last year as like-for-like sales shrunk by 5.7 per cent in December, further hit by store closures.
In the UK, New Look is closing 85 stores, with the future of 13 more being negotiated with the landlords.