Furniture group MFI showed it was continuing its recovery, with a jump in sales during the last 44 weeks, writes David Duffy.

In a trading statement, the group, which has a branch in Botley Road, Oxford, said like-for-like sales, stripping out the effect of new store openings or closures, had risen 11.8 per cent.

John Hancock, who took over as chief executive following a profits warning around a year and a half ago, said: We continue to make a recovery from the difficulties 18 months ago.

In its core UK retail business, sales were up six per cent in the second half to date, compared to 15 per cent in the first half, although MFI stressed the six per cent rise was compared to strengthened figures in 1999.

However, trading had been volatile since the summer, and had been affected by the fuel crisis.

Mr Hancock said: "We found for the three weeks of the petrol crisis there was an immediate impact when people clearly couldn't get to our stores, and had other things to think about."