House of Fraser, the privately owned department store chain, showed today it is defying the gloom on the High Street with record levels of sales and profits.

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Begbies Traynor, the business recovery group, reckons almost 140, mainly smaller, retailers are in a financially critical situation. It has also cautioned that as consumers tighten their belts after Christmas there could be a surge of insolvencies during the first quarter of 2013.

House of Fraser has blamed warm weather, the consumer downturn and costs associated with opening a new distribution centre for a sharp fall in its profits last year.

John Hargreaves, the founder of Matalan, has acquired Fenn Wright Manson, the womenswear retailer, out of administration.

A man today admitted starting a massive fire which destroyed a family-run furniture shop during the riots last year.

The furniture chain Lombok went into administration yesterday in a move resulting in the closure of nine stores.

House of Fraser, the department store group, has posted a sharp rise in annual profits and issued a £250m bond to give it a cheaper debt structure and free up cashflow to invest in the business.