Liberty reports encouraging results

London department store Liberty last week announced a rise in sales of 5.4 percent during the six weeks to Christmas. The results were helped by strong sales of cosmetics, women's accessories, jewellery and men's wear. In a statement, the department store said that it had enjoyed one of its "best performances" in the week before Christmas. Sales in that week soared 20.4 percent compared with the same period the year before. The first week after Christmas sales were up 3 percent on last year.

"Our retail trading performance through Christmas has been very encouraging, all the more so in light of the post-July trading climate which has made London 's West End a challenging retail environment," said chief executive Iain Renwick. Retailers experienced mixed results during the Christmas period. Some experienced rises in sales during the run-up to the holiday. Privately-owned John Lewis, generally perceived to be the industry's barometer, reported a 7.1 percent rise in sales in the 7 weeks ended 7 January.

"Although we view the year ahead with some caution, we will be completing the consolidation of our retailing activities into the iconic Tudor building by April 2006," he continued. "While this is expected to reduce headline gross sales figures slightly, we are confident of the positive effect that this will have on both sales densities and profitability over the full year." Liberty said the rise in sales reflected last year's launch of its new luxury goods brand Liberty of London and its position as a destination shopping venue. It refuted the suggestion that the positive results were a result of aggressive discounting. Broker Seymour Pierce told the Financial Times that it was "a good performance", taking into account the amount of discounting taking place in the high street. " Liberty , we believe, because of its shift in mix towards own label merchandise, particularly the Liberty of London luxury collection, will have seen an increase in gross margin over the period."