Home shopping continued to outperform market expectations as N Brown, Ideal Shopping Direct and Findel all reported strong like-for-like sales growth over the Christmas trading period.

N Brown is on track to generate annual turnover of£600 million – its long-term aim is to hit the£1 billion marker – after like-for-like sales jumped 14 per cent in the 20 weeks to January 12.

Sales to new customers rose 30 per cent, in part thanks to an increase of£4 million in marketing spend in the second half to promote established and new brands. Womenswear performed particularly well, with sales up 12 per cent for the period.

Broker Credit Suisse said that the recent fall in N Brown’s share price had been overdone. “We continue to favour the shares, given the ongoing opportunities to drive growth through better customer productivity,” it said.

Ideal’s like-for-likes surged almost 28 per cent in the 17 weeks to December 30 and Findel achieved record sales, up 23 per cent in the 39 weeks to December 28.

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