Online boost sees Dunelm festive sales rise by 3.4%
DEMAND for “rocking unicorns” and surging online sales helped homewares group Dunelm — which has five stores in Northern Ireland — notch up a rise in festive trading.
The retailer said like-for-like sales lifted 3.4% over the 13 weeks to December, with a 30.5% leap in online sales making up for a more lacklustre 1.1% rise across its stores.
Dunelm said children’s products were among its star festive performers, with rocking unicorns and rocking horses among bestsellers.
Candles were also in strong demand over Christmas, according to the group.
Its solid second-quarter performance saw it buck an otherwise tough homewares market and left its first half like-for-like sales 6% higher. But Dunelm’s shares fell 5% as the group revealed that profit margins were lower than a year earlier. HASTINGS Hotels has started a recruitment drive to fill up to 150 posts at its £53m Grand Central venue ahead of its opening in June.
The roles include general manager, operations manager and head chef.
The Bedford Street hotel at the former Windsor House office block will be Hastings’ seventh in the province.
Mark McGurnaghan, group human resources manager for Hastings Hotels, said: “When the Grand Central opens it will be Northern Ireland’s largest hotel and an exciting place for people in the hospitality industry to work.”
He added that the role of general manager will be a “demanding” one.
“We require a confident, hospitality-experienced professional who can drive the standards of service synonymous with the Hastings Hotels Group through strong leadership of the 150 employees,” he said.
The 300-bedroom hotel is one of many new ones opening here during 2018.
Dalata Group plc, Ireland’s biggest hotel operator, will unveil the Maldron Hotel at Brunswick Square in March, its fourth local property.
And the province will gets its first Marriott in April when the AC Marriott opens at City Quays II on the Lagan waterfront.