Final quarter sales improve at Thorntons

Chocolate retailer Thorntons said total sales in the fourth quarter improved 7.8 per cent to £24.7m as action taken to revitalise its brand starts to deliver improvements in a difficult trading environment.

Own Store like-for-like sales during the nine-week period increased by 0.7%. Overall sales in Own Stores declined £0.7m to £13.7m following the closure of 36 stores during the year.

Chief executive Jonathan Hart commented: "Although we are encouraged by this performance, this nine week period contributes less than 12% to our annual sales and we continue to remain cautious about the outlook for the coming year."

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"Trading initiatives in our Own Stores, implemented since our strategic review, combined with new product launches have led to some improvement in underlying sales."

We anticipate profit before tax, impairment and onerous lease charges for the full year to be in line with our expectations, the group said.

Franchise sales fell to £0.9m after sales were adversely affected by the administration of Clinton Cards. Thorntons had franchises in 30 Birthdays stores and 16 Clinton Cards stores.

Thorntons Direct sales were broadly flat at £0.8m.

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