The snow weighs heavy on Beales' stores

The Bournemouth-based chain said all its stores were "disproportionately affected" by the snow, which left same-store sales in the first 11 weeks of its new financial year down 3.4 per cent on a year earlier.

The group operates 11 outlets across the south, south east and north west – areas which were all hit badly by the adverse weather.

Sales over the key five-week Christmas period to January 2 rose 2.8 per cent year-on-year, but snow hit trading in the first half of January and dragged sales into negative territory.

Beales also reported full-year figures showing it remained firmly in the red, although losses narrowed from 1.5m to 990,000 for the 52 weeks to November 1.

The group hopes to continue the progress in 2010, in spite of caution over the consumer outlook.

Tony Brown, chief executive of Beales, said: "Whilst losses are never desirable to report, despite the backdrop of the recession we have managed to significantly reduce our losses.

"We will continue with the strategy employed in 2009 through 2010, which I believe will be another challenging year for retailers. We have set ourselves the target of significantly reducing our losses again and I am confident that we will achieve this objective despite the adverse economic environment."

This time last year, Beales was warning of "material uncertainties" over continuing as a going concern as it faced the struggle of renegotiating its banking agreements at the height of the financial crisis.

But since then, the group has drafted in Mr Brown to lead a revival and secured a new loan deal with its banks that has put it on a firmer financial footing.

Profit margins have also been improving due to cost control and better stock buying and Beales confirmed that the first two months of the current financial year have been more profitable than a year earlier.