Debenhams posts acceleration in sales growth

Debenhams, the department store group with 167 stores across Britain and Ireland, showed its resilience to weak market conditions, posting an acceleration in underlying sales growth this summer when rivals, including Next, saw a drop-off in trade.

Debenhams has bucked the gloomy trend, helped by its breadth of products, broad range of customers, and increased marketing spend.

The group, which trades from stores in Britain, Ireland, and Denmark, and more than 60 international franchise stores, said yesterday it would meet analysts’ consensus expectations of about €194.5m for the year to Sep 1 pre-tax profit, up from €189m in 2010-11.