Superdry bucks the trend with a Christmas cracker

The fashion retailer SuperGroup has bucked the downturn on the High Street to post almost a 10% leap in underlying sales over the Christmas period.

The operator of the Superdry and Cult clothing brands cited particularly strong sales on accessories, such as scarves, wallets, phone cases and gloves.

SuperGroup - whose shares have had a rollercoaster ride since floating at 500p in March 2010 - grew its underlying UK retail sales by 9.3% in December, up by a more modest 5.8% over the longer, nine-week period.

This figure covers its 76 UK standalone stores, online operation and concessions in department stores, and demonstrates SuperGroup has overcome its warehouse IT glitch that led to a profit warning in October.

Chief executive Julian Dunkerton said: "It is back to normalised trade for us after the warehouse problems. People were saying Christmas was going to be awful and, like I say, product will always win the day."

Total sales at SuperGroup jumped 22% to £79 million over the nine weeks. But the group's wholesale revenues fell by 4%, which it blamed on some suppliers delivering stock earlier this year.
However, sales at its wholesale division, covering international and UK independent chains, are up 54% this financial year since May. Shares in SuperGroup rose by 7.5p to 558.5p.