Top and bottom are squeezing the middleground of the high street

Strong Christmas sales from luxury fashion chain Mulberry point to better than expected 2012 results.

The group, which makes and sells leather goods and accessories, revealed that same‑floorspace sales leapt 25 per cent in the 16 weeks to 14 January. Total sales were up 30 per cent.

Mulberry said in its statement: “Wholesale orders for spring/summer 2012 are currently up 35 per cent compared with the spring/summer 2011 end of season total, with more than two months of the selling season remaining.”

It came as, at the other end of the high street, Primark owner Associated British Foods said it had enjoyed a strong Christmas and forecast profit growth as falling raw material prices helped profit margins at the discount chain recover.

AB Foods, which also sells Silver Spoon sugar and Twinings tea, said total revenue rose 12 per cent in the 16 weeks to 7 January, with sales at Primark up 16 per cent. AB described underlying sales growth at stores open for more than a year as good, without specific figures.

AB Foods finance director John Bason said Primark would increasingly benefit from falling commodity prices.

“Cotton has halved from the peak last year, so what was a headwind has become a tailwind,” Bason said.

He added: “I do share their [the Bank of England’s] optimism [on inflation]. The pressures of 2011 were VAT increases, but also the background of rising commodity prices. They turned towards the end of 2011, so I think the inflationary pressure really has eased.”

As one of the world’s biggest sugar producers, AB Foods is also benefiting from strong sugar prices, which helped lift revenues at its sugar division 21 per cent.

The group said it expected growth in both sales and adjusted operating profit in the coming year.

Elsewhere, shares in ASOS jumped 20 per cent after the online fashion retailer posted a strong bounce in sales in the last three months of 2011.

ASOS’s sales grew over 10 per cent – twice what the market had been expecting, and way ahead of the 1 per cent growth in the previous quarter when chief executive Nick Robertson admitted the company had “taken our eye off the ball”.

He said 19 per cent of ASOS’s traffic on Christmas Day was via a mobile device. International sales rocketed 93 per cent.

Electronics group Kesa revealed that the Comet chain’s like‑for‑like sales fell 14.5 per cent in the ten weeks to 8 January.

Kesa, whose French business Darty saw sales fall 4.7 per cent, is selling the Comet chain in Britain for a nominal £2 to private investment firm OpCapita. The sale is due for completion on 3 February.

Electronic chains such as Kesa and Dixons have been battling cut-price competition from supermarket chains and internet retailers as consumers are reining in purchases of big-ticket items.