N Brown sales lifted by cool weather The company, whose brands include Jacamo, SimplyBe, and High and Mighty, said like-for-like sales rose 9.4pc in the six weeks to October 13, while total sales increased 10.1pc. The company plans to spend £15m with Google this year, primarily on ensuring N Brown's brands appear prominently when customers search for relevant topics on the search engine. The investment in new customers has hit margins, however. Reflecting this, the group's first half profits fell from £44.8m to £41.8m pre-tax, despite total revenues rising 4.3pc to £379m. Mr White added: "We have seen double-digit growth in the revenue from our younger brands, such as Jacamo and SimplyBe, and in our menswear and home and leisure product ranges. The 10.1pc increase in sales at the start of the second half is also very encouraging and all our major brands and product areas have contributed to this growth. This gives us some optimism in the outlook for our second-half performance. N Brown increased its interim dividend by 3pc to 5.45p, payable on January 4. Bethany Hocking, analyst at Investec, said: "N Brown has strong multi-channel capabilities, good cash generation and growth opportunities." The shares rose 37.2 - 13.8pc - to 306.9p.