Online retailer Very.co.uk clocked up a record Christmas and Black Friday after sales of smartphones and other gadgets took off during the festive period.

Among the best-selling items were bedding and soft furnishings and the new Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X games consoles, as well as Apple Airpods.

Chief executive Henry Birch said the company sold a pair of Airpods every 10 seconds and a TV every 30 seconds during the Black Friday sales session.

Retail sales rose by 25pc year-on-year in the seven weeks leading up to Christmas. Mr Birch said he was “delighted with the performance”.

The business, which also owns sister website Littlewoods, has not been hit by any significant disruption in supplies because of Brexit.

Mr Birch said: “We are aware of others reporting problems, but we’ve been able to get products into and out of Ireland. We did a huge amount of planning and had a good idea of what to expect.”

The company - whose ultimate owners, the Barclay family, are also the proprietors of Telegraph Media Group, publisher of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph - returned to profitability in the year to June.

More than 500,000 new customers visited the website during the seven weeks, up more than a quarter on last year.

Revenue at Very including its credit arm increased 23.3pc year-on-year, while overall group revenue grew 15.3pc year-on-year to surpass £500m for the period for the first time.