Game Group emerged yesterday as the first big winner on the high street this Christmas after cashing in on the rush for the year’s must-have gift, the Nintendo Wii console.

Game defied the doom and gloom engulfing the retail sector and said it expected to report profits far higher than expected for the current financial year. Pretax profits will be at least £70 million in the 12 months to January 31, nearly £8 million above analysts’ forecasts.

Shares in the group, Europe’s biggest specialist games retailer, rose 8 per cent, or 18p, to a record 250p. The profit upgrade heightened speculation over how other retailers have fared.

There were growing rumours in the City that Next could disappoint when the clothing retailer begins the Christmas reporting season on Thursday alongside Morrisons, the supermarket chain.

Asda yesterday said it had enjoyed its best festive period, with 41 stores surpassing £3 million of sales in the week to December 25.

Kevin Hawkins, director-general of the British Retail Consortium, said: “As last year and every year, there will be big gaps between the winners and losers. Specialists like Game always tend to do significantly better or very much worse than the rest of the pack.”

Game refused to divulge its Christmas sales figures ahead of a scheduled trading update on January 15, stating only that it was seeing a “continued strong performance”.

Analysts said it was clear the group would be one of the best-performing retailers. Its like-for-like sales growth has been running at 44 per cent.

Demand for the Wii was so strong in the run-up to Christmas that Amazon UK sold its entire stock in just 40 minutes. Some Wiis were put up for sale on eBay for as much as £1,000. Industry experts believe that Nintendo could sell twice the 1.8 million consoles it is manufacturing each month. As well as the Wii, Game is thought to have benefited from the clamour for Nintendo’s DS console and PlayStation’s decision to cut the price of the PS3.

Top-selling games included Brain Training, the DS title backed by Nicole Kidman, Call of Duty 4 and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Warwick Okines, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, said that Game’s upgrade wrapped up a “perfect month” for the group, given the clearance of its acquisition of Gamestation three weeks ago. “We have increased our top-of-range £63.9 million forecast to £73 million, driven by stronger revenue growth and unchanged margins and cost estimates,” he said.

— The first Waitrose stores outside the UK will open this year as Britain’s sixth-biggest supermarket chain aims to build an £800 million international business.

It has signed a licensing agreement with Spinneys, a Dubai-based rival, that will see the Gulf group open 20 stores under the Waitrose brand in the United Arab Emirates by 2010. Waitrose is eyeing similar deals in China and India, where it already exports some of its products.

Mark Price, Waitrose managing director, said: “I think that over the next couple of years people will be surprised by our ambition.”

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