THE tills have started ringing for retailers in Huddersfield.

Two of the town’s main retail centres – Kingsgate and the Piazza – have reported increased sales as the countdown to Christmas continues.

Vernon O’Reilly, manager of the Piazza Shopping Centre, which includes Boots, Bhs, Toymaster, Poundworld and Superdrug among its tenants, said: “We have been speaking to some of our major stores and they say they have been busy.

“It was a slow start because people are cautious. People did not start shopping at the end of November, but it has been steady. Now people are starting to rush for those last-minute items.”

Mr O’Reilly said both Toymaster and Outdoor World had seen a strong improvement in sales since moving to the Piazza from Market Street and High Street respectively, while Poundworld was doing “phenomenal” business.

He said shoppers seemed to be making just one or two visits to stores rather than multiple trips, but figures from stores suggested spending per head was higher.

“I don’t think we will be breaking any records,” he said. “People are not running up their credit cards any more, but feedback is positive.”

Mr O’Reilly forecast strong sales after Christmas as people used gift tokens given as presents to take advantage of the sales.

Jonathan Hardy, centre manager at Kingsgate, agreed: “Christmas trading has started later – the last wage packet before Christmas is the one that gets spent.

“But this is our week and if we hold our own we should enjoy a reasonably good Christmas. Many of our retailers are holding off from launching an early ‘January sale’.”

Mr Hardy said Kingsgate was “holding its own” on Christmas trading – despite competition from the new Trinity Walk scheme at Wakefield and internet shopping – and was among only a few retail centres in the UK to be fully let.

Footfall figures for the past 24 weeks – measuring the number of shoppers in the centre – showed the positive impact of more recent arrivals, including fashion chain H&M and shoe retailer Clarks.

“Footfall has been higher for 21 of those 24 weeks and more than 90% of our retailers have reported sales that were better or on a par with the same period last year,” he said.