Insider Media Limited

Troubled retailer Thorntons has unveiled a further drop in revenue for the last quarter. Total sales declined 7.6 per cent which the Alfreton company's management said was "expected".

Total sales dropped to £46.5m in the three months to 1 October, which Thorntons said was in line with management expectations.

Commercial channel sales declined by 4.9 per cent to £18.9m while franchise sales fell 6.4 per cent to £2.6m.

Thorntons Direct sales decreased by 8.1 per cent to £1.2m due to the loss of a large corporate order, said the company.

Thorntons said the difference in growth over the last quarter reflects the timing of retailers' Christmas orders which will now fall into the second quarter.

In a further blow, own store sales dropped by 10.1 per cent to £23.4m. Like-for-like sales were down 7.8 per cent.

However, the retailer said its order book for Christmas trading, "remains strong", and its consumer online sales continued to grow by 5.1 per cent year-on-year.

Jonathan Hart, Thorntons' chief executive, said: "As expected, the retail environment continues to be challenging with weakness in high street footfall. Our consumers remain cost conscious and continue to select promoted products.

"Our programme to improve own store merchandising and layout launches in October. We are now starting to roll out our new ranges of 'little gifts' into the stores and are pleased with our strong Christmas seasonal offer across all channels.

"The commercial sales order book for Christmas is in line with our expectations and we would expect to report strong year on year growth within this channel by the half year."