Debenhams lifted by strong January sale Mr Sharp suggested it was "too difficult to call" whether retailers would see an uplift from events such as the Olympics, the Diamond Jubilee and the Euro 2012 football tournament. "We definitely got a feel good factor last year from the Royal Wedding, I'd hope we'd get that from the Jubilee but quite what it means in terms of consumer spending I don't know so we have got to remain fleet of foot," he said. Debenhams, which has 170 stores in the UK, Ireland and Denmark, said it was confident that the benefits of its latest strategy would be felt over the medium-term. It now has 67 franchise stories in 25 international markets - a figure it hopes to increase to 130 within the next five years. Sanjay Vidyarthi, analyst at Espirito Santo, said: "Given the volatility in the fashion market in February, we think this is a strong update from Debenhams that is likely to represent outperformance versus the market. Management is not seeing anything in the market yet to suggest an upturn in consumer demand.