Sportswear brand Castore has reported its “strongest ever sales performance” for the Christmas trading period, with “record” revenues up 16 percent year-on-year over the month of December.

The company said the increase came as a result of a “resilient” sportswear market, backed by customers continuing to prioritise their health and wellbeing. While the weekend of December 7 and 8 saw the highest footfall in stores, Boxing Day was said to have been Castore’s “largest individual revenue day”, with the majority of its sales happening online and through its app.

In the way of products, Castore noted that its Formula 1 collaborations with McLaren and Red Bull stood out, with sales for these collections growing by more than 20 percent YoY, reflecting its status as a key growth area. Womenswear was another category welcoming growth, seeing a sales uptick of over 30 percent, with performance across all women’s sports remaining strong.

While the rest of the market braces for cost increases to businesses in the UK, brought on by the Labour Government’s incoming Budget, Castore said it remained “bullish on the high street”, and thus revealed plans to open five to ten new stores in 2025.

In a release, Tom Beahon, co-founder of Castore, said: “We are delighted to deliver such resilient trading in a challenging environment and this positive momentum has continued so far into January. Our strategy will remain focused on omnichannel, combining the best of digital, physical stores and third party retail partners to maximise the reach of the Castore brand.”

Beahon said Castore was forecasting “continued profitable growth both in the UK and international markets” for 2025, in spite of “macroeconomic uncertainties”.

Speculation of LSE float mounts, yet nothing ‘immediate’ planned

News of Castore’s strong performance fell alongside industry speculation that the sportswear label was considering a stock market flotation. According to The Telegraph, a London Stock Exchange listing is among the brand’s long-term goals, however, for Beahon, “there’s nothing on the immediate cards”.

When asked about the rumour, Beahon told FashionUnited in a statement: “I very much focus my time and energy on building the best brand and business that I can because if we do that there’ll hopefully be some exciting options for us from a capital event — an IPO is one of those options.

“As a proud British entrepreneur I would love to be able to IPO the business in London but there’s nothing on the immediate cards on that front.”