Department store group House of Fraser has reported a record Christmas after like-for-like sales increased 8% over the period.
House of Fraser also reported cash gross margins were up 9% in the six weeks to January 3, with the key Christmas trading period starting in the week of Black Friday.
Online sales were up 31.2% while store sales increased 4.2% on a like-for-like basis.
The retailer said all categories delivered sales growth, with a particularly strong performance from house brands, which were up 11.2%.
Black Friday online sales rose 125% on the previous year, and up nearly 70% on the previous largest online sales day.
Chief executive John King said: “We are delighted with our Christmas trading performance. This year we saw a very strong start to the key Christmas season with Black Friday being particularly successful. This positive momentum continued over the entire critical selling period with a record sales level during the final week before Christmas. Our performance demonstrates the success of our strategy to continuously improve our online proposition, develop both our house brands and premium branded proposition and invest in our stores to give our customers the best possible shopping experience.”
Like-for-like sales for the first 10 weeks of the fourth quarter increased 6.7% with cash gross margins up 7.5%.
King added: “We will continue to invest in our online proposition and, as a result, we expect to continue to see sales growth from this channel. During 2014 we refurbished our store in Bath, which has seen sales increase by 27% since the completion of the works and we plan to refurbish more stores during 2015 as well as build on our international portfolio. Given this further investment, we believe that we are well placed to continue to grow in 2015.”
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