Electronics Boutique booming

COMPUTER games retailer The Electronics Boutique has cashed in on Britain's Christmas shopping boom, recording a 47% jump in like-for-like sales in the period.

The company said that the festive bonanza would cover the cost of rebranding shops as Game and changing the company's name to The Game Group. About half of its 290 UK stores still trade as Electronics Boutique, and the switch is expected to generate a £6m exceptional charge against profits in the year to 31 January.

Analysts said this would be offset by the sharply higher underlying performance that would result from Christmas trading, leaving the company on track to report a £25.2m pre-tax profit for the current year. The market had expected Electronics Boutique to enjoy like-for-like sales growth of about 30% over Christmas. But the release of the Harry Potter game proved a huge windfall as people queued for a chance to play Quidditch. It also benefited from strong demand for PlayStation 2 and the hand-held Nintendo Game Boy Advance.

The name change will include changing the loyalty databases of more than three million customers accounting for about 60% of sales.

Electronics Boutique said total UK sales were 51% higher in the five weeks and up 41% for the year. It did not release a total figure for Continental sales.