Family-friendly clothing brands Joules and Fat Face have celebrated not succumbing to the retail discounting frenzy by posting a surge in sales over the festive period.

The upbeat figures have bucked the retail gloom. High street sales fell last month to their weakest level since March 2009 as shoppers reined in non-food spending as budgets came under pressure. In order to revive sales, much of the high street began slashing prices before Christmas.

Anthony Thompson, chief executive of Fat Face, said that the heavily promotional environment had meant that many of his rivals had “lost all price integrity”.

Fat Face shunned all discounting until Boxing Day, which Mr Thompson said gave customers “confidence that they could buy something nice without having to look over their shoulder to check if the price was going to be moving the next minute.”