º£½ÇÊÓƵ

The CEO of Marks Electrical says the business saw record sales in the build-up to Christmas, helped by demand for energy efficient appliances, televisions and fridges.

Sales of A-rated items such as heat pump tumble dryers helped the online retailer grow sales by a third in the three months to Christmas, compared to a year earlier. Revenues for the period were £29.7 million.

Founder and chief executive Mark Smithson said the group was on track to achieve its full year targets, while bigger competitors such as AO had seen year-on-year revenues fall for the same three months.

Mr Smithson, who founded the Leicester business 35 years ago, said: “I am proud of the entire team at Marks Electrical for delivering a record quarterly performance, with year-on-year growth of 33.4 per cent against a tough economic back-drop.

“This further demonstrates the resilience of our business model and the attractiveness of our market-leading customer offering, which more people are discovering up and down the country.

“To continue our focus on growing brand awareness, we further invested in highly targeted television, radio and out-of-home campaigns over the Black Friday and Christmas sales peaks.

“This led to increased website traffic and broad-based revenue growth across the º£½ÇÊÓƵ, but with particularly strong improvements year-on-year in London, South East England and the East Midlands.

“We’ve worked closely with our suppliers throughout the quarter, enhancing our position as a growing, but agile, national retail partner of choice.