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Growing demand for TVs, washer-dryers and big fridge-freezers has helped Marks Electrical power ahead with strong sales this year.

The online white goods retailer said sales of TVs and washer-dryers were up more than two-thirds over the last six months, while demand for American style fridge-freezers was up more than a third.

Mark Smithson, founder and chief executive of the Leicester-based business, said it continued to take a bigger share of the overall market while a new “premium” next-day installation service for integrated, gas, electric and televisions recorded 7,000 orders in the six months – compared to 250 in the prior year.

Overall Marks Electrical sales for the last six months were up a quarter to £53.9 million, compared to £43.1 million a year before. That, Mr Smithson said, had been achieved despite the broadly flat market.

The business also expects things to improve as inflation drops and its own leverage within the market grows.

Mr Smithson said: “Our strategic decision to add in-house installation services to our offering has strengthened the group’s premium service proposition, enabling us to develop a market leading installation offering, growing market share and driving revenue growth.

“The launch of this service, alongside the well documented industry-wide pressures regarding wage inflation, impacted our H1 [half year] margin, with the pressure on distribution and installation costs being higher than expected.

“At the same time, year on year, we remained disciplined on marketing costs, maintained our cost control on overheads and are continuing to gain market share profitably.

“We remain focused on our full year targets and expect margin pressure to ease in H2 as we benefit from improved operating leverage during the peak trading period.

“Our differentiated operating model, leading customer service and free next-day delivery provides a unique premium service proposition that sets us apart from the competition.

“I’m proud of our achievements in the first half and thank all of our colleagues for their commitment to developing and maintaining our superior customer offering, positioning us as the º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s leading premium electrical retailer.

“We’ve exited September with order growth of over 20 per cent, made a strong start to October, and are laser-focused on maintaining our performance management discipline on revenue, profit and cash in order to grow sustainably and achieve our full year targets.”