Trading Statement

Liberty PLC 13 January 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 13th January 2006 LIBERTY PLC: CHRISTMAS TRADING STATEMENT - SALES ADVANCE BY OVER 5% Liberty Plc ('Liberty' or 'the Company') today announces that sales at its West End emporium for the six weeks to Christmas showed a 5.4% advance over the comparable period a year ago, further building on the significant growth achieved in 2004. The store also experienced one of its best performances in the week immediately prior to Christmas with a 20.4% increase in sales over the same week a year ago, benefiting from an extra trading day. Since Christmas the sales momentum has continued with a 3% increase in volume for the first full week of post Christmas sales compared to the same period a year ago. Iain Renwick, Liberty's Chief Executive, commented: 'Our retail trading performance through Christmas has been very encouraging, all the more so in light of the post-July trading climate which has made London's West End a challenging retail environment. 'Liberty has built on last year's excellent Christmas trading performance which has been underpinned by our successful new luxury branded goods collection, Liberty of London, which has been very well received by customers and the media alike. 'Although we view the year ahead with some caution, we will be completing the consolidation of our retailing activities into the iconic Tudor building by April 2006. While this is expected to reduce headline gross sales figures slightly, we are confident of the positive effect that this will have on both sales densities and profitability over the full year,'concluded Renwick. This sales increase continues to reflect Liberty's increasing popularity as a destination-shopping venue together with the highly successful launch of the Liberty of London luxury goods brand. The pre-Christmas sales performance was not as a result of aggressive discounting and demonstrates the success of the strategy being followed by the management team Four key areas dominated the continued improved performance: Beauty and Cosmetics; Ladies Accessories; Jewellery; and, Menswear. As with last year, this December's results followed a strong performance in the Autumn/Winter season, where in spite of the effect of the July bombings in London, the store's retail sales for the 26 weeks to 31st December 2005 were 1.4% higher than the previous year. Ends. Contact: Richard Balfour-Lynn, Chairman, Liberty. Tel: 020 7706 2121 Iain Renwick, Chief Executive, Liberty. Tel: 020 7734 1234 Baron Phillips, Baron Phillips Associates Tel: 020 7920 3161 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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