BrightHouse, the furniture and electricals retailer that specialises in selling on credit to customers on low incomes, has reported a 16.9 per cent rise in annual sales to £170.6 million.

The company, which is owned by Vision Capital, the private equity firm, also enjoyed a 13.9 per cent rise in sales on a like-for-like basis. BrightHouse opened 21 new stores during the period, which took the total to 177.

Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation at the company, which sponsors Trisha, the daytime television show, rose 21.5 per cent to £29.4 million.

Publication of the figures comes six months after management at BrightHouse, which typically charges its customers APRs of 29.9 per cent, were branded “vultures” in a Sunday tabloid newspaper. It claimed that 40 per cent of its customers were single mothers, many on benefits, who were unable to get credit anywhere else. It quoted Chris Tapp, director of Credit Action, the debt charity, as saying: “BrightHouse is cashing in on people’s financial struggles.”

However, Leo McKee, BrightHouse’s chief executive, insisted that independent research suggested that the company enjoyed a 96 per cent customer satisfaction rate. He said that the company’s customer base had risen by 17 per cent during the year, to 146,000, with 40 per cent of new customers having been referred to BrightHouse by existing ones.

Mr McKee said that BrightHouse, which employs 1,900 people, planned to open a further 20 stores during the next 12 months.

BrightHouse was bought by Vision Capital in July 2007 from Terra Firma, the private equity firm led by Guy Hands, the financier. The complex £250 million deal also included a 75 per cent stake in Threshers, the off-licence chain, which Vision continues to own.

BrightHouse dates back to the old Crazy George’s chain, which, in turn, was part of Boxclever, the business formed in the 1999 merger between Granada’s television rentals division and Radio Rentals, the two leading players in the market.

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