Department store chain Debenhams said it remained on track to deliver full year results in line with market expectations despite seeing no underlying sales growth over its third quarter.

The retailer said on Thursday sales at stores open over a year were flat over the 15 weeks to June 13th, versus analysts’ third quarter forecasts of down 2 per cent to up 0.5 percent.

The performance followed first half growth of 1.3 per cent, which was enhanced by 1 per cent from the shift of a key sale period from the third to the second quarter.

The firm said gross margin guidance for the 2014-15 year was unchanged and it was on track to achieve pretax profit expectations of £111 million versus £110 million made in the previous year.

Reuters