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Christmas pays off for Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group

By Angela Gonzalez-Rodriguez

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Business

Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, the fashion-to-textiles retailer that owns the eponymous fashion brand, as well affordable apparel Peacocks chain and homeware retailer Ponden Home, has had a brilliant Christmas.

The retail group has posted strong sales across its brands during the five weeks to January 3, 2015. Like-for-like sales increased by 2.7 percent at Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM), by 5.2 percent at fashion retailer Peacocks, and by 4.5 percent at Ponden Home.

On top of that, Web sales grew by 92.6 percent, while gross margin also saw a significant improvement on a like-for-like basis.

“Each of our brands is driven by the needs of its customers. Together with our relentless focus on quality, value for money and customer experience, that continues to deliver increasing sales and strong margin growth,” revealed the secret to such a good trading the group´s commercial director, Steve Simpson.

“Our programme of store openings, together with the successful launch of a popular click and collect service across Group websites, continued to make our brands more accessible to customers during 2014,” added Simpson, who advances that they will keep up with their expansion plans in 2015.

92 percent online sales growth for Peacocks

EWM, which has grown consistently to become a category leader in the over-40s customer segment, recorded an increase in like-for-like sales of 2.7 percent in the five weeks to January, 3.

Total sales increased 6.2 percent, thanks in part to the opening of 15 new stores during the current financial year, including two in December. Online sales sky-rocketed, rising by 23.4 percent in the same five-week Christmas period, while there was also a significant improvement in gross margin on a like-for-like basis.

Meanwhile, Peacocks, which has opened 43 new stores in the current financial year, including 11 in December, recorded a 5.2 percent lift in like-for-like sales in the five weeks to January 3, with a total sales increase of 11.1 percent. The brand´s online sales grew 92.6 percent, while gross margin also saw a significant improvement on a like-for-like basis, highlights ‘The Courier’.

As announced by the group, a further 18 stores are planned before February next year, together with the launch of an e-commerce website and multi-channel platform.

“We now plan to maintain the speed of expansion with more than 100 new stores in the next 12 months, while the launch of in store ordering will further improve our customer-focused multi-channel offering and drive online sales.”

Edinburgh Woollen Mill
Peacocks