House of Fraser celebrates ‘best ever’ Christmas performance

House of Fraser rode the wave of shoppers logging on over the festive period as it reported its "best ever" Christmas performance today.

The department store said sales were up 6.3pc in the six weeks to January 5, with online revenues up 48pc in the period as increasing numbers of customers used their mobile phones and tablets to shop on the internet.

The group, which has 60 department stores, said it sold 45,000 pairs of shoes and 40,000 handbags a week in the period, up 19pc and 16pc respectively.

And the 160-year-old company's house brands, such as homeware and fashion label Linea and men's clothes brand Howick, were up 10pc.

House of Fraser, which has 7,300 staff plus 11,000 concession employees, said online sales were bigger than any individual store after the relaunch of its website and opening of "click and collect" stores in Aberdeen and Liverpool.

Chairman Don McCarthy said: "There is no doubt 2012 was a challenging year in retail and it remains difficult to predict when economic conditions and consumer sentiment will improve."

The group said menswear performed particularly strongly in the period, up 7.4pc overall and 8.6pc in its own brand range.

Fashion accessories also fared well, up 17.5pc in the period, helping push overall like-for-like sales up 5.2pc in the first 10 weeks of its fourth quarter.

Rival John Lewis, which reported strong Christmas trading last week, also said sales were boosted by its online offering.

Its website johnlewis.com broke through the �800m barrier during December, after a 44pc rise in sales year-on-year.