Irish retailers confident 2013 to bring sales growth

Irish retailers have shown their joy after seeing more shoppers

who spent more than the past five years, according to latest released data.

The Central Statistic Office (CSO) retail sales index increased marginally for the three months up to October ahead of the busy shopping period and retailers expect a further increase on the Christmas period.

The Dublin City Business Improvement District (BID) said 128 million people visited the capital this year, an increase of three million on the previous year. Retail Excellence Ireland (REI) chief executive David Fitzsimons said the small surge in growth is welcome, but it should be viewed in the context of the dismal last four years of trading. He said: "We are seeing growth for the first time in five years at about two-and-a-half percent pre-Christmas.

"The sales activity on St Stephen's Day and Thursday is probably up around seven or eight per cent. When you are facing like-for-like declines, year on year of 15 to 20 per cent, even marginal growth is great for psychology." He added: "If you look at the trend over five years, the rate of decline dissipated to a point where the CSO has been reporting like-for-like growth for the last couple of months." On the contrary, retail consultant James Burke in declarations for 'The Independent' suggested people have put off buying essential items for as long as possible and eventually they gave in and dipped into their savings.

"If you look at something like furniture, people may have made a decision four or five years ago that they weren't going to spend on new furniture, but there is only so long you can do that for." However, he also stressed that "Average spend is down probably across every single sector in retail and a lot of retailers are either level or are getting minimum growth."

According to REI latest survey, people are still spending less before Christmas and holding out for the bargains in the sales. An spokesman for the institution explained that "In the good times, all the fashion spending and all the home spending would have been done before Christmas at full price, because the women wanted to look their best at the Christmas party or social occasions.”

Dublin retail giant Arnotts confirmed to the'Sunday Independent' that it has enjoyed a "double digit" jump on last year's sales, after it opened its doors to determined shoppers who had been camped outside the store since late on Christmas day.

Meanwhile, the Dundrum Town Centre's director Don Nugent said sales of ladies' fashions were up on last year by between 10 and 30 per cent, while the sale of men's fashions had seen increases of between 12 and 15 per cent.