Mackays Stores, one of the UK’s biggest privately owned clothing retailers, has posted an increase in profits despite having to cope with rising commodity prices.

The value specialist, which trades as M&Co, reported pre-tax profit up by £600,000 to £8.7m on sales that increased from £181.9m to £186.9m in the year to February 25. Like-for-likes rose 3% in the period.

In its annual filing to Companies House the retailer described the performance as “satisfactory”.

The retailer noted: “This growth was achieved despite a significant reduction in consumer demand over the last two months of the financial year caused by uncertainties in the economy and price rises across all sectors due to increases in raw material costs and the higher rate of VAT.

“Despite the price rises referred to above, product margins for the year as a whole were at a comparable level to the previous financial year. Overhead increases were again well contained.”