Retailer raises online targets

Debenhams, the department stores group, raised its targets for online and international growth after showing its resilience to weak market conditions with a 4.2% rise in year profit.

The group said it had raised its medium-term target for online sales from £500m (€620m) to £600m and its five-year target for total franchise stores from 130 to 150.

Debenhams, which trades from about 170 stores in Britain, Ireland and Denmark, and over 60 international franchise stores, made a pretax profit of £158.3m in the year to Sept 1. That was slightly ahead of analysts’ expectations of £157.5m and up from £152m in the 2010-11 year.