Very Group has released its Christmas trading report saying it enjoyed “strong” trading growth at its key Very operation, “driven by exceptional sales in [the] Home and Toys, Gifts & Beauty categories”.

The company, which also owns the legacy Littlewoods business, said the seven weeks to 27 December saw Very UK delivering retail sales growth of 2.3% year-on-year, “supporting group retail sales growth of 0.5%”. It didn’t give specific figures for Littlewoods but the overall company figure suggests its results were negative as the firm continues to focus all its efforts on Very itself.

Excluding the impact of Nike sales, Very UK and group retail sales grew by 4.5% and 2.8%, respectively.

Following Nike’s decision to switch to a direct-to-consumer model, the results exclude the brand’s sales from both the current and prior year to remove distortion caused by the winding down of Nike stock.

As mentioned, its standout categories in the festive period were Home (up 15%) and Toys, Gifts & Beauty (up 7.3%). Fashion & Sports saw less impressive 2.9% growth but the category rose 11.2% excluding Nike and the fact that it grew at all was encouraging in the current environment. Menswear was a strong category within Fashion & Sports.

Games consoles, perfumes and pillows were among the best-selling items, with LEGO and air fryers also performing well. Marc Jacobs perfumes did particularly well too.

Unlike some retailers that had fairly early cut-off times for Christmas delivery, Very maintained its next-day delivery service throughout the peak period, with a cut-off of 7pm on 23 December for delivery before Christmas.

CEO Robbie Feather said he was “delighted with our strong peak trading performance” and that “we delivered growth in almost all categories”. 

He added that consumers “left their shopping later” this time, “but when the time came, they made the most of our offering, with this momentum carrying on into our Boxing Day and January sales. Looking ahead, we remain focused on the rest of 2025 which we expect will remain highly competitive. We are confident that our proposition, which combines multi-category digital retail and flexible ways to pay, will continue to be valued by our customers, providing them with a one-stop-shop for everything they need”.

The company said its “strong retail trading and ongoing cost management means we expect YoY adjusted EBITDA growth of 16%-18%”.