Games sales rise of 63% boosts 'new kid' Zavvi

The entertainment retailer Zavvi proved to be a high street winner this Christmas with games sales driving growth.

The chain, which changed its named from Virgin Megastore after a management buyout in September, reported like-for-like sales growth of 10.2 per cent in the four weeks to 5 January across its categories, which includes, books, DVDs and music. Games were the overall star with a massive 62.7 per cent like-for-like sales growth, despite the short supply of the Nintendo Wii and DS.

"When you consider the downbeat assessment of the high street from certain quarters, our trading performance over Christmas is very encouraging," the managing director Simon Douglas said. "Although the team has a rich history in entertainment retail, there's no getting away from the fact that Zavvi is the newest kid on the block as far as customers are concerned, so to perform as well as we have during such an important trading period has to be taken as a huge positive."

Music sales did not fare as well, with a drop of 11.6 per cent which the company put down to a weak release schedule and price deflation affecting chart sales. Online sales performed well and grew 70 per cent compared with last year's Christmas period.