Joules sales leap despite refusing to cut its prices

Country-casual fashion brand Joules on Tuesday emerged as one of the High Street’s Christmas winners by standing firm against discounting.

It reported a 19.2% increase in sales for the “crucial seven-week” period to January 7 as shoppers bought more hats, gloves and slippers, mostly at full price. Colin Porter, chief executive, snubbed other rivals’ decision to discount heavily to shift stock. “We’re different than what everyone else is doing,” he said.

Although it ran Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, the listed quilted-jackets seller held out until “three or four days” before Christmas to offer promotions, while it only started discounting its gifts category on Christmas Eve.

Mothercare yesterday issued a stark profit warning after refusing to discount, but Debenhams blamed a late decision to cut prices for its Christmas profit alert.

Clothing retailer Fat Face today also emerged as a winner, posting a 12% increase in sales in the five weeks to January 6. Sales for the 26 weeks to 2 December also grew by 12% to £120 million, while underlying profits rose 8% to £14.9 million compared with last year.