British retailer Kesa Electricals PLC, on Wednesday posted holiday season sales figures; which managed to beat estimates pegged by experts by a large margin, mainly on the back of an improvement in its French operations and surging sales across all developing nations of the world.

Europe's third-largest retailer for electrical goods after Metro AG's MediaMarkt and DSG International PLC, shared that same-store sales declined by a mere 0.3% during the Christmas shopping season, i. e., from November 01 to January 08, which is a substantial improvement on market expectations which pegged that sales would fall by about 4.5%.

Overall, total sales, inclusive of new space, hike by 1.3% over the aforementioned period.

During the recession, consumers avoided buying electrical like televisions, fridges and freezers, which led to Kesa being one of the hardest hit European retailers. Some confidence, however, has come back to the retail sector over the past year which has worked well for the company.

In France, which is Kesa's second largest market, the retailer shared that same-store sales had hiked by 3.6%, taking the unit's successful streak, which started in the past year's first half, a step further.