SWINDON'S high street retailers have suffered their worst Christmas for a decade according to a new survey.

A study by the British Retail Consortium and accountants KPMG found that sales were down by 0.4 per cent over the festive season.

They also showed that trading started slowly last month and got progressively worse as the festive period went on.

There was however some good news, as a last-minute bout of present buying and some strong clearance sales from Boxing Day enabled retailers to salvage some of the lost sales.

The report's findings follow a string of post-Christmas profits warnings from some of the best-known names on the high street including Marks & Spencer, Woolworths and JJB Sports, all of whom have stores in Swindon.

On Friday, Marks and Spencer announced that its annual profits were unlikely to top £625 million after trading deteriorated since the summer and its like-for-like sales fell 5.6 per cent in the six weeks to January 1.

The troubled Swindon-based stationer's WHSmith is due to unveil its results next Wednesday and will be hoping its Christmas are better than some of its rivals.

Most consumers shied away from splashing out on big-ticket items like furniture and electronics, instead anticipating deep discounts during the end-of-season sales.

The mild weather also cut demand for heating and tumble driers, while cheaper prices of computers and mobile phones saw sales values being well down on a year ago.

Sales of food and drink also rose as grocers benefited from a longer trading week ahead of Christmas Day and seasonal promotions proved a success.

Consortium director general Kevin Hawkins said the figures represented the worst Christmas for retailers in the last decade.

He said: "Even the materialisation of the expected last-minute rush and strong trading for many retailers in the post Christmas sales could not turn December into a positive month.

"However, it was far from the speculative hype of the worst Christmas in living memory which was proposed by some commentators."

He added the outlook for retailers was clouded by concerns about the state of the housing market and state of the economy.

The Consortium and KPMG survey also found that total sales were 2.5 per cent higher than a year ago in December, against an increase of 2.4 per cent during the previous month.

Anthony Osborne