IPSWICH Central’s Paul Clement said different retailers had very different experiences of the Christmaas period in the town centre.

“Some retailers seem to have done very well – their sales were up on last Christmas – while others were really struggling.

“The problems at HMV were well-known and there were clearly some retailers that were not doing as well as they would have liked.”

One of the winners in Ipswich seemed to be independent fashion retailer Urban Vintage which is based in Queen Street – but even it saw a slow start to the Christmas season.

Manager James Cole said November and early December had been quiet, until about two weeks before Christmas.

“A couple of weeks out things started to go a bit mad and it got very busy with people realising they needed to get things.

“This meant that overall we had a very good December – now we just hope that continues throughout 2013!”