International expansion across the Far-East is going well for homeware design company Cath Kidston as it announced a surge in weekly sales in its new Shanghai stores.

The stores, which do not physically differentiate from UK stores, have seen a growth in average weekly sales of over 150 per cent. Stores in shopping centres Cloud 9 and Raffles City saw a sales rise of 200 per cent and 102 per cent respectively.

Kenny Wilson CEO, Cath Kidston said: “The Chinese in particular like the product – the colour and the quirky British design. However, shoppers in Japan prefer our floral prints.

“(We saw China as a market) because from what people told us, we found that the Chinese see Britain as a country that they really admire. Since the Olympics, which really showcased Britain, we‘ve definitely seen more tourists in our stores.”

Having started as a humble Holland Park store in 1993 as a “glorified junk shop” the home furnishings retailer now has more overseas shops than UK ones and made group sales of £100m for the first time this year.