With high street retailing come in for a battering by the media, both pre and post Christmas, there was some Christmas cheer in the festive results – for independents as well as multiples.
On the independent front, many gift indies reported a strong Christmas.
“We had a great Christmas, particularly with our decorations room and seasonal gifts,” enthused Maggie Thornton, owner of Alligator Pear in Tadworth. “People started shopping earlier this year for their trees, and a lot of customers said they wanted to get organised rather than leaving it till the last minute. The shop really started to get busy during the first week of December, particularly on the Thursdays and Fridays leading up to the weekends. Christmas Eve was fairly busy, and, as we expected, we saw a lot of male shoppers. However, unusually for us, the Saturday before was busier.”
“Despite the challenges earlier this year, which resulted in us doing less marketing and promotions, we still had a 3% increase in sales over the week before Christmas,” confirmed Maxine Ellison, director of Max & Melia in Clapham, South London. “We usually start our sale in the week before Christmas, copying the major chains. This year however, we didn’t have time and it hasn’t appeared to effect on our sales. Looking to 2019, we will also look at starting the sale a bit later.”
“In Edenbridge, Christmas kicked off on Saturday November 3, with November proving to be an excellent month following a very weak September and October,” commented Karen Ebers, owner of Something Special in Edenbridge.“December sales matched last year, with Christmas Eve the busiest day of the year, as expected. The average spend was up although footfall was down.”
Following the encouraging news that Selfridges had a record breaking Christmas, with sales rising 8% in the 24 day lead up to Christmas, homewares multiple Dunelm too, announced that sales increased by 9%, with a 37.9% surge online. The company’s full year’s profits are predicted to be ‘modestly ahead’.
Other major retailers who defied the gloom and doom mongers included Argos, whose sales grew strongly over Christmas, with strong sales growth in the Christmas weeks. Additionally, Tesco’s reported its best Christmas sales figures for a decade, up 2.6% in the six weeks to January 5, and Morrisons saw its Christmas sales climb for the fourth consecutive year.
However, among the biggest losers was Debenhams, with a six week like-for-like sales drop of 3.4%. In a shock announcement, chairman Sir Ian Cheshire was voted off the board, as was Sergio Bucher, although he will be staying on as chief executive.
Top: While Christmas was a cracker for some retailers, others were struggling.
