Air fryers and gaming consoles helped online shopping giant Very Group to "strong trading growth" over the Christmas and Black Friday period.
The Liverpool group said it had seen "exceptional sales in home and toys, gifts and beauty categories" over the seven weeks to 27 December 2024.
Very 海角视频 reported retail sales growth of 2.3 per cent compared with the same period last year, with overall group retail sales including Littlewoods and its Irish operations up 0.5 per cent year-on-year.
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The biggest growth was seen in homewares (up 15 per cent year-on-year) and toys, gifts and beauty (up 7.3 per cent). Its fashion and sports category was up 2.9 per cent on 2023 - and with Nike sales from the previous year stripped out, following the US brand's move to a direct-to-consumer model, sales were up 11.2 per cent.
Bestselling products by sales value included the PlayStation 5 console, the Meta Quest 3 console, and the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone air fryer. By volume, bestsellers included Marc Jacobs perfumes, Silentnight pillows and LEGO Disney Stitch sets.
Very said that, thanks to the strong peak trading and "progress with our ongoing cost initiatives", it expects EBITDA profit growth of 16 per cent to 18 per cent for the year.
Group chief executive Robbie Feather said: “We delivered growth in almost all categories, with games consoles, air fryers and perfume among our best sellers.
“Customers left shopping later this year but, when the time came, they made the most of our offering, with this momentum carrying on into our Boxing Day and January sales.
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"Looking ahead, we remain focused on the rest of 2025 which we expect will remain highly competitive. We are confident that our proposition, which combines multi-category digital retail and flexible ways to pay, will continue to be valued by our customers, providing them with a one-stop-shop for everything they need.”
Very said that, over the festive period, some 6.9 million items were processed at its high-tech automated distribution centre Skygate in the East Midlands.
The busiest day of its peak period was November 29 when it processed 218,000 items - beating last year’s busiest day of 205,000 items.
Its fastest order was processed and despatched in 16 minutes, while the group said: "We maintained our next-day delivery service throughout the peak period, with a cut-off of 7pm on 23 December for delivery before Christmas."
As well as its Speke campus and Skygate complex, Very Group also has a London hub, a distribution centre in Wrexham and a customer care centre in Bolton, as well as an Irish base in Dublin.
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