The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has today revealed the High Street recovered in February after a dismal January, which saw shoppers avoid the stores due to the heavy snowfall.
According to the BRC, like-for-like sales were up 2.2% on the year but analysts issued caution since the figures compare with poor trading in February 2009.
Furthermore, food sales were weak, expanding at their slowest rate since 2007 but this was attributed to the ‘panic buying‘ seen during January, as a result of the bad weather.
However, non-food sectors enjoyed strong growth in the first week of February due to the build up to Valentine’s Day, with confectionery and jewellery selling well.
“Despite appearances, these results are not that strong,” commented Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC.
“The growth is compared with very weak figures a year ago when February saw the worst of last winter’s weather and this February’s performance was helped by sales postponed from January - particularly sales of non-food items such as homewares and fashion,” he concluded.
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