Matalan sees improved trend in fashion sales

Retailer Matalan today said it had stemmed a decline in the sales of clothes but was still being let down by poor demand for its household goods.

Like-for-like sales of garments recovered slightly from a 5% fall in the first six months of its financial year to a 4.5% drop by the end of its full year on February 25. Homeware sales continued to be disappointing following a poor performance over Christmas.

The UK firm said in a statement before its final results that it had kept its 3% market share on clothing and that it would meet analysts profit forecasts of between £55m (€80.7m) and £60m (€88m) in what had been “a difficult trading environment”.