The young ones were Christmas retail successes

YOUNG fashion brands were among the retail winners of Christmas 2009 as young people ignored the recession and carried on spending.

Names including Asos, Cult, M&M Direct, Office, and Republic saw a leap in like-for-like sales over the festive season as the sector continued to show resilience against the wider economic uncertainty.

Speaking at PricewaterhouseCooper's Christmas Trading Update in Leeds yesterday, retail director Andy Garbutt said: "Young people don't seem to care about what is going on in the wider economy and are still spending. It's a sector still showing remarkable resilience."

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Other sectors which continued to perform well included supermarkets, value brands and online shopping.

Consistent with 2008, consumers were holding out for discounts but retailers held their nerve in 2009 and benefited from the pre-Christmas surge.

Stuart McKee, retail partner, said: "Retailers were well aware of the likely economic conditions in 2009, which was in contrast to 2008 when they ended up being overstocked. This year there was no reason to push through promotional activity quite as early."

Food retailers showed strong growth despite the reduction in food inflation.

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Value retailers such as Brighthouse and Poundland continued their success with like-for-like growth, a trend which Mr Garbutt said was not entirely due to the economic downturn.

He said: "The recession accelerated the trend but consumers were already moving towards shopping in these types of outlets."

Online continues to outperform the high street but growth is slowing. Shoppers spent 5.46bn online in December an increase of 17 per cent on last year.

Year-on-year growth online in 2009 was 14 per cent but this is expected to drop to 13 per cent growth for 2010.

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Predictions for 2010 continue to be cautious and retailers are planning for lower growth as uncertainty surrounds the forthcoming general election and consumers hoard their cash.

But PwC believes there will be an increase in the number of private equity deals, such as the recent Pets At Home purchase by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which is believed to value the UK retailer at 955m.

Mr Garbutt said: "If you look at the history of deals, there are fewer deals done at this point in the economic cycle but they are more successful."