Debenhams confirms strong Christmas
Designers at Debenhams brands perform well
For the four weeks of Christmas ended 5 January 2008, total sales were 4.4 per cent higher than last year. Like-for-like sales for the Christmas period increased by 2.2 per cent.For the 18 weeks ended 5 January 2008, total sales were 2.0% above the comparative period last year. Like-for-like sales for the 18 weeks were flat. Debenhams Direct saw sales up 57 per cent and 85 per cent respectively.
Rob Templeman, Chief Executive, said ‘The fragile state of consumer confidence leads us to view the future with caution and we are running the business on the basis that market conditions will remain difficult. To this end, we are focusing more on our designer credentials, which we believe will be more resilient in this environment, as well as managing our cost base, the speed of our refit and capital expenditure programmes and our inventory levels tightly.’
