Furniture giant DFS has emerged from the crucial post-Christmas Sales relatively unscathed as beleaguered competitors fall by the wayside.

Trading was flat for the post-Christmas Sales and DFS chairman Lord Kirkham told Retail Week like-for-likes for the period would be “1 per cent either way” compared with last year.

He said: “The market is massively challenging and we amended our expectations last year in the face of a tough climate. We’re not ecstatic, but we’ve maintained our share of the market. We’re not jumping up and down, but we’re not about to commit suicide either.”

Kirkham conceded that the rest of the year would be difficult and the tough climate is not just a blip. “Consumer confidence started to slump last year and the latest interest rate decrease did little to shift that,” he said. “This will be protracted and some of the smaller furniture players may fall into serious difficulties this year.”

Rival Land of Leather issued a profit warning last week after a poor start to the post-Christmas Sales. ScS has yet to update on its Sales trade, but warned before Christmas it was not confident of hitting full-year expectations.

Bed retailers Dreams and Bensons for Beds bucked the trend to net strong trade over the Sales period. Dreams reported a 7 per cent increase in like-for-like sales from December 1 to January 6. Bensons’ like-for-likes climbed 2.4 per cent between Boxing Day and January 5.

Separately, Ilva posted a net loss of just over£62 million for the year ending 30 April, 2007. However, the Danish furniture retailer – now under new ownership – remains committed to the UK market.

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