Toy specialist The Entertainer has reported an increase in sales over the festive period, although its average transaction size edged down.
The Entertainer achieved a 3.5% year-on-year increase in sales in the nine weeks to January 3, when products such as The Traitors board game proved popular.
Chief executive Andrew Murphy said he was pleased with performance, which was ahead of the wider non-food market, but observed that “customers were trading down slightly in terms of average transaction size, so we had to work hard for these gains”.
Trading was mixed across locations. High streets suffered “in what was a fairly wet month”, and regional malls delivered the strongest performance.
Cities such as Leeds, Bristol, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Plymouth “showed up very well”, while the biggest contributions came from stores in Lakeside, Bluewater and Sheffield Meadowhall.
Murphy said: “We’re pleased to report that January has started exceptionally well for us, with product newness very much in demand and our price promise beginning to really land with customers. As a result, we’re currently running at roughly double our pre-Christmas rate of sales increase.”
Ownership of The Entertainer, which was founded by entrepreneurs Gary and Cathy Grant and has 152 shops, was transferred to employees last year.
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