Increased demand for home delivery orders and festive goods helped Dunelm record positive sales in its second quarterly update, which factors in the Christmas trading period.

The homewares retailer raked in a total of £261.9 million in sales in the 13 weeks to December 31, a 6.6 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

When factoring in the revenue for that three month period by excluding the acquisition of Worldstores’ parent company WS Group, Dunelm‘s sales rose by 3.3 per cent year-on-year to almost £253.8 million.

However, the company‘s total like-for-like growth – including home delivery but excluding sales from newly opened outlets – edged up a small 0.2 per cent year-on-year.

Dunelm attributed this to a change in its accounting period end date, with the figures including six days of its winter sale compared to eight days in the same period last year.

The retailer said that if one were to ignore this then same-stores sales growth would have been approximately £4 million higher.

READ MORE: Dunelm doubles online operation with £8.5 million acquisition

“As expected, we saw an improved second quarter with seasonal product in particular performing well,” the company said in a statement.

“The homewares market has continued to decline but we believe that we are continuing to outperform the market as a whole.

“We also continue to see good growth in the online business including a 21.7 per cent increase in home delivery sales for the quarter.”

Dunelm chief executive John Browett said: “Following a difficult first quarter we have seen an improvement in performance both in our stores and online.

“It was encouraging to see customers respond well to our seasonal product lines, especially our new Christmas offer.

“We have continued to outperform the homewares market in what is a challenging and volatile retail environment.

“We were pleased to complete the acquisition of Worldstores in the quarter and remain excited by the opportunity it gives us to accelerate the growth of our online proposition.

“We continue to focus on and invest in our key strategic initiatives, which will improve the business over the medium term, whilst ensuring we maintain our unique offer of tremendous value for money, combined with an unrivalled range and great service.”

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