Chocolate shoppers kept it short and sweet

BRITISH chocolate maker Thorntons indicated that a Christmas rush for its confectionery had failed to materialise by revealing its sales performance had deteriorated.

Thorntons pointed the finger at the challenging retail climate in Britain for a 4.9% decline in like-for-like sales at its estate of 369 shops during the 26 weeks to Christmas Eve.

The figure was worse than the 4.4% fall for the first 15 weeks of the financial year reported by the company, which is still in talks over a possible takeover offer, at the time of its annual meeting in October.