Discounter hails best-ever Christmas

THE Original Factory Shop, the Lancashire-based discount retailer, has reported sales growth of 7.5% to a record £30.2m over the festive period.

TOFS, which has more than 200 shops, mostly located in secondary regional towns, said its like-for-like sales, which doesn’t include new stores, was 2.5% in the five weeks to 3rd January 2016.

The Burnley company said its online business was growing dramatically – digital transactions increased 226% year-on-year.

Of the total sales figure of £30.2m, £1.7m came from 16 new stores. The retailer said its gross margins were maintained as it had not needed to join the pre-Christmas sales frenzy..

TOFS recorded particularly strong performance in its home, beauty and ladieswear departments.  Clothing sales rose 4.5% in the period, with ladieswear proving particularly popular with growth of +19.7%.  The party and gifting season drove sales of beauty products up 16.6%. More than 725,000 metres of wrapping paper was purchased, along with more than one million batteries sold thanks to tech-savvy gift-givers and festive decorators.

 Chief executive Tony Page said: “We are delighted that our dedication to providing genuine branded bargains all-year-round has been recognised by our customers once again, reflected in our strong trading across stores and online.  This formula provides a robust platform for future profitable growth.

“Alongside this, we uphold excellent customer service in our local communities, as evidenced by our record mystery shopping scores achieved during December. Despite the sector’s challenging conditions, we will continue to delight our customers, and we look forward to further expanding our store portfolio and building on the substantial development of our website, to further grow this exciting, unique business.”