A WELCOME surge in sales by Bury-based greetings cards giants Birthdays is helping its parent company Clinton gear up for the important Christmas trading period with confidence.

Although bosses admit the performance of the Dumers Lane business still falls short of expectations, Birthdays has played a significant role in boosting overall sales during the past ten weeks in the run-up to the festive period.

Clinton has posted substantially reduced £6.1 million pre-tax profits for the year ending July 30. Because its year end period has changed, and the latest results cover 78 weeks, previous figures do not provide a true reflection.

However, the latest announcements clearly show that sales statistics are contrasting.

Those for the Clinton brand in the 52 weeks to January, 2006, declined by 2.7 per cent, with the latter six months of that period down by 3.3 per cent. In the six months to July, like-for-like sales tumbled by 2.1 per cent, resulting in a total decline of 3.0 per cent for the 52 weeks to July, 2006.

However, like-for-like sales for the Birthdays brand in the 52 weeks to July increased by 3.6 per cent.

Chairman Mr Don Lewin said: "Given the trading environment on the high street, we believe this to be a reasonable performance, albeit falling short of our expectations."

In the ten weeks since July 30, like-for-like sales in the Clinton business increased by 1.2 per cent and those for Birthdays rose by a 4.1 per cent. The group operates a total of 735 Clinton stores and 410 Birthdays retail outlets.

Changes at Dumers Lane-based Birthdays, which Clinton acquired for £46.4 million in 2004, have involved the appointment of Stuart Houlston as managing director, a restructuring of the buying department, a complete review of the product range and a more extensive use of electronic ordering.

Mr Lewin added: "Improvements at Birthdays continue to be made and we expect to report further progress in 2007."

Group managing director Mr Clinton Lewin told the Bury Times: "As far as Birthdays is concerned, this division hasn't come to fruition as quickly as we'd expected. But we are pleased with the changes we've made. Now, I believe the results speak for themselves.

"Both the brands have some great products in readiness for the Christmas period and we feel quite confident we are going to meet the customers' needs.

" Generally, we are quite pleased with the way the business is moving."

Clinton employs around 10,000 staff nationwide, 50 of them at their Birthdays head office in Bury.