Britain's largest bed retailer Bensons for Beds has reported a sales bounce back as lockdown restrictions eased.

Also announcing plans to accelerate its turnaround strategy after refinancing last year, the firm said it had seen "very strong" sales with double digit like-for-like growth from customers both in store and online.

Bensons for Beds, which has stores in Gloucester and Cheltenham as well as a distribution site in Tewkesbury, said it was making "good progress", and with the help of its new management team it would be "well-placed for the future".

Over the next year, the retailer said it also plans to relocate 11 stores to new premises, invest heavily in its workforce, ecommerce platform and product innovation as well as TV and print advertising campaigns.

Bensons for Beds chief executive Mark Jackson said: "The pent-up demand we've seen since our stores reopened gives us the confidence to accelerate our transformation programme and build on the progress made over the past year.

"I appreciate the hard work of the team - everyone has had to work enormously hard to cope with the impact of the pandemic and the temporary closures, but we emerge from restrictions in a strengthened position.

"The shareholder investment last June has allowed us to revamp our website, begin reshaping our store portfolio and invest in product innovation and we'll step up the pace of change this year."