Theo Paphitis Retail Group saw its total sales rise by 15.6% in the run-up to Christmas compared to the same time in 2019.
The strong performance in the six weeks to 24 December was driven by online growth of 87.5% as store sales declined by 6.3%.
Looking at the individual brands, the Boux Avenue lingerie retailer increased its sales by 50.6% on 2019 following growth in both ecommerce and in-store.
Meanwhile, the Robert Dyas homewares retailer doubled its sales online in the period and the Ryman stationery retailer grew its online sales by 56.4%.
Giving figures for the year ending 31 March, the group said Boux Avenue achieved sales growth of 9.1% following a strategic review. The business also reduced its underlying EBITDA loss to £3.5 million from a previous £14.9 million despite disruption and costs relating to the Covid-19 pandemic. Online sales at the business climbed by 129.7% on 2020.
At Ryman, the retailer posted an EBITDA loss of £8.5 million compared to a profit of £7.8 million in the prior year which meant it ended its run of over 25 years of profitable performance. The group said this was a result of Ryman’s prominence in city centres, business and student markets which meant it was impacted particularly badly by lockdowns.
Meanwhile, Robert Dyas delivered growth on last year with online sales up 88% compared to the previous 12 months. This helped to mitigate the impact of the pandemic with an improvement in EBITDA of £2.4 million which meant it made a loss of only £0.7 million.
