Hobbycraft reports strong Christmas sales
Arts and crafts retailer Hobbycraft increased its like-for-like sales by 5.3% in the five weeks to 24 December.
The company’s in-store and online like-for-like sales climbed by 3% and 19.5% respectively while total sales grew by 8.9%.
During the Christmas trading period, Hobbycraft hosted 12 weeks of workshops and demonstrations across its 99 stores as it showed customers how to tackle projects such as fillable baubles and handmade crackers. With 23,000 adults and children attending the demonstrations, the events helped to drive sales.
The retailer said it saw significant growth in the number of customers choosing to use more recyclable products in the gift wrap, gift tags and DIY crackers categories. Sales of recyclable brown gift tags increased by 21% in the period.
Dominic Jordan, chief executive of Hobbycraft, said: “This is a good performance. This Christmas we’ve seen so many customers looking not only to personalise their gifts, but also to consider presentation and recyclability of materials. We’ve seen some fantastic examples of gift wrapping and tags which can be both beautiful and better for the environment.”
