Disney Store hit by rise in online costs in Europe

The retailer Disney Store showed that all was not well with Mickey Mouse and his friends last year by posting widening losses, and blamed increased costs from its online operations on the Continent.

Disney Store, which has 56 shops in the UK, said it was "satisfied" with its performance, but the retailer saw its losses more than double to £3.8m over the year to 1 October.

Sales rose 8 per cent to £120.1m, boosted by the release of Disney films in the period, including Tangled, Cars 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean 4. A company spokeswoman stressed that profits had fallen as a result of increased delivery costs for shipping products to customers ordered on its French and German websites from its UK warehouse.