Fashion and homewares retailer Matalan’s total sales fell 1.7% over the five weeks to January 3 but it still expects full-year growth.

However, the retailer said its Boxing Day Sale launched with 3.4% less stock than last year.

Over its third quarter to November 29, EBITDA slipped 4.3% to £39.6m and revenue fell 7.2% to £298m.

Across the first nine months of the year, EBITDA increased 5.7% to £85.9m. Despite the slip in EBITDA over the third quarter, Matalan expects to achieve EBITDA growth of 5% for the year.

Matalan did not give margin figures for the Christmas period but managing director Jason Hargreaves said the retailer “delivered a resilient margin performance in what was a very challenging sales environment”.

He said: “A tightly bought seasonal range has insulated us well from significant margin dilution with the Boxing Day Sale commencing with lower stock volumes than last year.

“In what has been a year of supply chain transition, our change programme has progressed well and nears completion.

“Alongside this, we have successfully opened our first true city centre store format in Cardiff. The business has landed these initiatives whilst delivering what we expect to be EBITDA growth for the full year of around 5%. I would like to thank all of our colleagues for their hard work and contribution to the progress that the business is making.”