Zavvi has released results based on its first Christmas since it began trading under its new name, and reports a year on year sales rise comapared to Virgin Megastores’ 2006 festive period.

The new chain boasts a 10.8 per cent increase in sales on the previous year when trading as Virgin Megastores for the four week trading period ending 5th January. It also reported a spike of over 70 per cent in online sales growth. Zavvi’s games sales grew by 62.7 per cent on a like-for-like basis during Christmas.

“We are thrilled with an exceptional 62.7 per cent like-for like increase across our games business, especially considering the well publicised availability issues within games over Christmas,” said Zavvi MD Simon Douglas. “A strong release schedule, the continued success of next generation hardware and well marketed games campaigns made a real difference and we expect more of the same in 2008.”

Zavvi also revealed that it plans new stores in Belfast, Casmberley, Bristol and Liverpool, with store and website re-branding set for completion by the end of January.

“When you consider the downbeat assessment of the High Street from certain quarters, our trading performance over Christmas is very encouraging,” added Douglas. “Although the team has a rich history in entertainment retail, there’s no getting away from the fact that Zavvi is the newest kid on the block as far as customers are concerned so to perform as well as we have during such an important trading period has to be taken as a huge positive.”