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 Further festive sales increase for value retailer QD Group The group, which operates 46 stores under the QD, Cherry Lane Garden Centre, Thingmebobs and Lathams brands, saw sales up by 5.41% during three weeks preceding Christmas compared with the same period in 2012. QD sales by department for the period were up 24.5% (Christmas), 21.7% (grocery), 10.9% (giftware), 18.9% (plants, seeds etc). Post-Christmas LFL sales are currently (January 2nd 2014) 16.9% up year-onyear, the company reports. "in common with many other value retailers, our trading position over the festive season has been encouraging given the presently flat state of the retail sector," says QD Stores Group managing director, Justin Farrington Smith. UK retail sales overall in December 2013 were up 1.5% compared with a year earlier, while like-for-like sales rose 0.3%, according to the British Retail Consortium. "While challenging conditions face our high street business, we saw a contrastingly strong performance from our leisure and destination sites," says Farrington Smith. Last August, QD reported a 4.0% year-to-date, LFL sales increase with above-average summer trading driven by seasonally-adjusted promotions across its apparel, garden and leisure buisness. Summary analysis of top-selling Christmas lines at QD suggests the traditional British Christmas is as popular as ever, with real Christmas trees and outdoor lit objects up over 30% on last year, respectively, while sales of Christmas jumpers, turkey tins, granulated gravy and stuffing reached record highs. QD anticipates Christmas 2014 sales boosted significantly by a brand new transational online facility spanning all of its product lines planned to be operational by end March.
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