Like-for-likes level with last year
Beales has announced that gross like-for-like sales at the department store chain remained level with last year for the nine weeks ending March 18.

Total sales for the first 20 weeks of the financial year were up 3.2 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The figures exclude the Walton-on-Thames store, which closed on January 21.

Beales, based in Bournemouth, operates 11 department stores. Earlier this month it acquired a 12th, the former Allders store at Horsham in West Sussex.