Strong start to sales for retailer

Oldrids & Downtown has reported bumper sales figures on Boxing Day, with queues outside their stores in Boston and Grantham. Sales were up 10 per cent on last year, which itself was up 24 per cent on the previous year.

Richard Broadhead, managing director of Oldrids & Downtown, said: “Retail is currently extremely volatile, highly unpredictable and trading has proven to be hugely challenging for the vast majority of retail companies.

“We have not been an exception in this regard. We did however, plan for a challenging peak trading period and have adapted our strategy accordingly, to ensure that any impact was minimised.

“Our Buying team have worked hard to ensure that there are really strong offers in place across all of our stores for the winter sale.

“In fact, we are once again market-leading on some key branded lines. It’s great to have had such a strong start to the sale and I’d like to thank our customers for their continued loyalty and for shopping with us.”

Oldrids & Downtown has also growth in their Oldrids Online business. This performance has underpinned the company’s five stores based in Boston, Grantham, and Scunthorpe, where, the business says, sales were marginally lower than last year, although in line with expectations and market trends.

“Our online growth has been great for us, with over 60 per cent of total sales being realised from customers living more than 40 miles away from any of our stores,” Mr Broadhead said. “This is all incremental business, coming from new customers to our brand.”