PERFUME retailer Merchant Retail yesterday posted a 15 per cent rise in half-year profits to £3.6m, despite what it described as a period of great uncertainty in which it decided to close its department stores.
The group hailed the continued success of its 106 outlets of The Perfume Shop chain, which saw a seven per cent increase in like-for-like sales. It said the stores were gearing up for a highly competitive Christmas.
Merchant Retail, which recently sold its Joplings department store at Leamington Spa and is in the process of selling its Tynedale Park store, in Northumberland, said talks were continuing on the sale of its two remaining department stores.
It said every effort would be made to agree a sale that would allow the sites, in Sunderland and Hexham, to continue trading in order to protect jobs.
The group said: "This has been the most challenging of starts to the year and there still remains much to be achieved."
Merchant announced in July that it was to sell the Tynedale Park store to Tesco for £17m and was seeking buyers for two other sites, in a move that could potentially affect the jobs of more than 600 workers.
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