Black Friday helps House of Fraser to record Christmas trading period

House of Fraser has reported a record Christmas trading period, boosted by a strong performance from ‘Black Friday’ promotions at the end of November.

The department store chain said like-for-like sales were up 8% for the six weeks to January 3, with profit margins also ahead.

Over the first 10 weeks of the fourth quarter, like-for-like sales grew by 6.7%.

The group’s figures show online sales for the six-week period led the way with 31.2% growth, while stores also improved with a like-for-like increase of 4.2%.

Black Friday online sales were up by more than 125% on the previous year and 70% on the previous largest online sales day.

The update was the first since the retailer was bought in a £480 million takeover by China’s Sanpower in September.

The 165-year-old retailer has 59 sites across the UK and Ireland, with 6,800 staff and 13,000 concession employees.