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Foyles has reported a 0.4% like-for-like increase in sales over the Christmas trading period in December.
The company said sales performed well in the three weeks before Christmas, up 0.1% on 2012 and increased further in the week before Christmas, up 0.68% compared to the equivalent period last year.
Foyles said Christmas sales were spread over a larger range of titles, with sales of autobiographies particularly strong. In that category memoirs by Morrissey (Penguin), Alex Ferguson (Hodder) and Yousafzai Malala (Weidenfeld and Nicolson) all featured in the company’s top 10 books.
The Foyles special edition of Neil Gaiman's Fortunately, the Milk... (Bloomsbury) sold very well, demonstrating “our customers' real desire for beautiful and exclusive editions,” the company said. The rediscovery of John Williams' Stoner (Vintage) also continued with a significant sales spike in December.
Shops which performed particularly well over the Christmas period were the Royal Festival Hall, St Pancras International and Westfield Stratford City in London and Cabot City in Bristol. However, the mini-chain’s flagship store in London’s Charing Cross Road was impacted by the ongoing Crossrail development at the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross Road.
Sam Husain, chief executive of Foyles, said: “Given the disruption caused by the Tottenham Court Road underground station development, Christmas trading is much as we predicted. While we expect this disruption to continue throughout this year, we have taken a long-term view and are confident that the street will be even more vibrant once the development is finished. We now look forward to re-establishing our flagship store next door in the former St Martin’s college in spring and opening a new bookshop in Waterloo Station at the end of January. ”
In November 2013, Foyles announced a fifth year of profitable trading for the financial year ending 30th June 2013, with pre-tax profits of £83,294, a decline on the previous year (£152,552 in 2012) with turnover also slightly down to £22.9m from £23.5m in 2012.