Gardening Direct performing well
Trading at mail order group Flying Brands picked up in February, after a slow start to the year. And the trend has continued throughout March and April, and the company said internet sales also accelerated in the 15 weeks to April 13.

In the gifts division, trade at Flying Flowers remained flat, but its three main promotions - on Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Easter - all performed well. The group said the process of integrating its Greetings Direct business into the Gifts Division is progressing well.

Within its garden division, after reporting flat trading in January, the company said Gardening Direct performed strongly throughout February and March, and the group believes this trend will continue throughout its spring campaign.

Flying Brands chairman Paul Fraser said: 'The warm winter and the reported decline in the bird population have created difficult market conditions for garden bird supplies and we will target more tightly our promotional spend for the balance of the year to maintain margins. We have now promoted two catalogues for Sarah Raven's Kitchen and Garden and the early response has been encouraging.'

In its entertainment division, the new Listen2 brand - the mail order music, DVD and video distributor - has started well and the company said its customer database is trading strongly. Benham, the stamp and coin collectables specialist, is performing in line with last year.

Fraser added: 'Our strategy remains to extract greater value from our database of 5 million households and we continue to look for appropriate earnings-enhancing acquisitions and partnerships. We are confident about the group's performance for the balance of the year.'

Flying Brands former deputy chairman Tim Trotter has succeeded Paul Fraser as chairman, with immediate effect. John Henwood, former chief executive of Channel Television and director of ITV Network, will be joining the board as a non-executive director with immediate effect.

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