John David Group, owner of the JD chain, remains committed to fashion chain Scotts after reporting stellar trading figures over the Christmas period.

John David chief executive Barry Bown said: “Scotts performed extremely well over Christmas, which is at odds with the rest of the fashion sector. It will be kept as an autonomous fascia and we will seek to open more stores this year.”

Like-for-likes were up 9.3 per cent in the period, with sports fascias recording 8.8 per cent and fashion (excluding Bank, which it bought last month) 16 per cent.

Bown said trade over Christmas was reasonable at Bank but added that the “ink has only just dried on the deal”.

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