Ted Baker sales rose over the festive period with commerce sales leading the uplift.

Retail sales including online were up 12.2%, or 10.5% in constant currencies, during the five weeks to January 5.

Online sales grew 18.7% and were responsible for just over one quarter of all retail sales.

The rise in sales comes after the historic outperformer faltered in recent months. The retailer’s pre-tax profit declined 3.2% to £24.5m at its last interim results while UK and Europe sales were up just 1%.

The retailer, which is investigating employees’ allegations of misconduct against founder Ray Kelvin, did not give a store sales figure.

It did not give an update on the independent investigation by Herbert Smith Freehills but said that it would do so “in due course”.

Acting chief executive Lindsay Page said: “The Ted Baker brand has delivered a good performance across both our stores and ecommerce business, despite the continuing challenging external trading conditions across our markets. This result again reflects the strength of the brand and the quality of our collections.”

The business completed its acquisition of No Ordinary Shoes for £20.3m during the period, which it billed as an “opportunity to drive further growth in our footwear business by leveraging our global footprint”.

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