Footwear retailer Brantano has reported a 6.6% increase in sales for the year to December 31, as it continues to roll out its garden centre concessions.

Like-for-like sales at the retailer were up 4.8% for the year to December 31. Online sales were up 32% and now account for 6% of total sales at the business.

Brantano opened 20 concessions during the year, predominantly in garden centres including Gates in Oakham, Rutland, and two branches of Wyevale Garden Centres, in Brighton, East Sussex, and Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.

The retailer currently has 145 stores and 33 concessions. It plans to open a further 25 concessions, mostly in garden centres but including some department stores, in 2015. The business declined to provide details of the locations.

David Short, managing director of Macintosh Fashion UK, which owns Brantano and Jones Bootmaker, said garden centres had proved to be a perfect fit for the business as it hones in on the lucrative over-50s market, as well as its existing target demographic of mothers with young children and ‘empty nesters’.

“Our ranges are already refined to satisfy these customers,” he explained. “It means we can hit the ground running and we are delivering strong sales in our new concessions from day one.”

Last year Brantano opened two stores, in Cannock, Staffordshire, and Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, and closed shops in Sheffield, Exeter, Wrexham, Bradley Stoke and Thurrock.