Sales in the first two weeks in January were below those of last year and like-for-like sales, including concessions but excluding VAT, for the 19 weeks to 13 March 2010, were down 1.8%.

For the 13 weeks to 30 January 2010, - the first quarter - they were 3.3% less than for the previous year. But it says that since the end of the snow, trading has continued to improve: sales during the six weeks since 31 January, including concessions but excluding VAT, were 3.9% up on the previous year.

The board said it was particularly pleased that first quarter sales were achieved at an improved gross margin compared with the previous year - despite promotional discounting required to be competitive over Christmas.

Story provided by Business Financial Newswire