Sunderland-based furniture and floorings retailer ScS Group said its revenue rose 1.3% to £337.3 million and profit before tax rose 10.5% to £13.2 million in the 52 weeks ended July 28 despite problems for its concessions at troubled House of Fraser.

The chaos at House of Fraser resulted in ScS gross sales there falling 9.4% to £24.8 million.

However, ScS CEO David Knight said: “2018 has been another strong year.

“Despite a prolonged period of economic uncertainty and challenging trading conditions, we have continued to grow the business …

“The downturn in sales in our House of Fraser concessions has been more than offset by growth in our core ScS business.

“This has been aided by record results from our online channel, which has seen a 22.6% increase in gross sales …

“Since the start of the current financial year, the overall trading performance of the group has been in line with our expectations.

“Due to the ongoing changes at House of Fraser, trading within our concessions, which represented 7.1% of FY18 gross sales, remains challenging and we are working with the new owners to address this as a priority. 

“Performance in our core ScS business has been encouraging.

“We will continue to focus on our value offering and we believe the group’s increasing resilience and strong cash flow dynamics will enable us to manage the continued economic uncertainty and take advantage of opportunities as they arise, allowing us to continue to deliver value for our shareholders.“

ScS is recommending a final dividend of 10.9p per share, making a full year dividend of 16.2p per share, an increase of 10.2%.