Aurum, owner of jewellers Goldsmiths and Mappin & Webb, posted a 9% jump in UK like-for-likes in the Christmas trading period driven by watch sales.

The “terrific result” has led the retailer to expect a “strong increase” in EBITDA for its year to February 3, 2013.

For the eight weeks to January 13 Goldsmiths sales advanced 8%, while sales across its other brands Mappin & Webb and Watches of Switzerland surged 11%.

Aurum, which was acquired by affiliates of Apollo Global Management in December last year, said it experienced a “strong” performance across all key watch brands. It said watches continued to dominate with sales increasing 9% in the period.

Aurum Holdings chief executive Justin Stead said: “Despite a challenging economic and trading environment, we have achieved another very strong performance over the festive period.

“These results show that our strategy to constantly improve our product offering, online position and customer experience has been a success and one which we will continue to implement in 2013 to deliver significant growth.”

Aurum added that sales were also driven by improved product availability and its online business, due to the popularity of click and collect.