Foyles' Christmas sales up 4.3%

Foyles achieved a 4.3% like-for-like sales increase over Christmas, the bookseller has said.

The seven-store chain’s head of marketing and brand development, Simon Heafield, told The Bookseller the company was “delighted” with its Christmas trading performance in December compared with the same month in 2015.

The sales growth was driven by Foyles’ ‘book of the year’, Paul Beatty’s The Sellout (Oneworld) which also won the Man Booker Prize last year.

Other titles which proved hits with Foyles’ customers were Grayson Perry's The Descent of Man (Allen lane) and David Walliams' The Midnight Gang (HarperCollins Children’s Books) - also 2016’s Christmas number one selling book.

“We were delighted with the performance of our shops and website this Christmas,” Heafield said. “…We're pleased to report our focus on our service culture and a rich local events programme, coupled with enhanced digital displays and services, have helped deliver a strong first Christmas.”

He added that an “encouraging start” was made by its new Chelmsford shop, which opened in September last year.

Foyles’ positive like-for-like Christmas sales follows a print sales rise for a second year in a row - up 7% in 2016. The week in the run up to Christmas also saw £83.3m worth of print books sold  - the highest since 2007, according to Nielsen BookScan.

Other bricks and mortar booksellers also reported like-for-like increases, including Waterstones, Blackwell’s, Standford’s and many independent booksellers.