Shop Direct hails ‘fantastic’ festive figures

HOME shopping and online retailer Shop Direct Group has reported strong festive trading figures.

The Liverpool company, which is owned by the Barclay brothers, and owns the Littlewoods, very.co.uk and Woolworths.co.uk brands said sales in the six weeks to the end of December had risen 5%, with strong margin growth.

Double-digit sales growth was seen in clothing and footwear, with outer-wear and knitwear proving particularly popular on the back of the cold weather

The company said it has sold more than 250,000 party dresses, while from an electronics perspective sales of games consoles were up 20% with the  Xbox Kinect selling really strongly.

Shop Direct said the strong performance had given it the confidence to invest in a new brand aimed at more mature female customers, called isme and fronted by actress Lynda Bellingham. The brand will also sponsor the daytime TV programme Loose Women.

Isme will compete directly with Manchester-based N Brown’s catalogues and websites such as Marisota, JD Williams and Ambrose Wilson. 

Group chief executive Mark Newton-Jones said: “All of our key brands delivered a fantastic performance over the peak trading period, with clothing and footwear, as well as toys significantly exceeding last year‟s sales.

“In addition, 2010 was another year of innovation for the Group and I am delighted to see this continue by starting the New Year with the launch of our exciting new mature brand – isme.

“As the UK’s largest online and home shopping retailer, our scale, strong portfolio of brands and wide range of products means we are in good shape and are well placed to face what we expect will be another challenging year.”

As well as its base in Speke, Shop Direct’s national distribution hub is located at Shaw in Oldham.