A HOME shopping group which employs hundreds of people in East Lancashire revealed a sparkling set of sales figures ahead of the traditionally busy Christmas period.

The Yorkshire-based group Findel, which has Express Gifts in Clayton-le-Moors and Church, near Accrington, and a warehouse in Nelson, saw sales in the six months to the end of September move ahead 13 per cent to £88.3million.

The group's home shopping division alone, which employs the East Lancashire workers, did even better, ringing up a 20 per cent increase in sales over the period to £54.7 million.

The group's pre-tax loss increased by £100,000 to £1.15 million, not helped by an increase in interest charges due to higher borrowings to fund expansion and higher interest rates.

Chairman Keith Chapman said: "The positive sales trend established over the last 18 months has continued throughout the busy autumn period with equally strong sales in both the home shopping and educational supplies division and sales recovery in the fund-raising division. "I remain confident of a satisfactory out-turn to the year."

A recruitment campaign boosted the number of home shopping catalogue customers by 18 per cent, the largest the group, previously known as Fine Art Developments, has ever seen. "Average order value has increased and both first and, importantly, repeat orders are well ahead of last year," added Mr Chapman.

Express Gifts has been made into a discount catalogue operation and is more price competitive with the High Street than previously, he added.

"We believe that for a large percentage of our traditional home shopping customer base, interactive television will become the primary medium for electronic shopping and we will be developing this channel over the next 12 to 18 months," Mr Chapman said.