The textiles business has had a surprisingly good start into the new year according to the association of German textiles retailers. Presumably VAT increase did not have as strong an effect as expected, the reason being numerous sales discounts which were granted at Christmas due to forecasts which were not very promising.
Thus, turnover was up by 15% in the first week of January as compared to last year. In the following two weeks it still exceeded last year´s sales by 2%. However, stocks are still full of winter garment. In an interview with the „Tagesspiegel am Sonntag» newspaper Siegfried Jacobs, vice president of the association of German textiles retailers, said that discounts of up to 70% are possible. 