Brian Bell Group enjoyed a great finish to 2023, particularly, throughout our Homecentre locations, says chief executive officer Cameron Mackellar. "Christmas saw a 6% sales growth and 3% transaction growth on prior year. "Last year (2023) was massive and we grew again this year. And overall our transactional growth for the group across all divisions was up 14%," Mr Mackellar said. "As we all know, 2023 has presented many challenges for business across PNG. "However, it seems our customers left their Christmas shopping quite late in the year and all of our stores enjoyed a massive uptick in business throughout the whole of December. "In fact, we saw a record number of customers and transactions in both November and December which made for a hectic trading period but put a smile on the faces of our team. "We hope that flurry of shopping then translated into everyone enjoying a nice Christmas with friends and family. "Our business closed on a high in 2023 and although economic conditions were much tougher than previous year, we recorded yet another record growth year. "We launched our Orange Digital business into PNG with great early success. "Both our Chemicals and Trade Electrical divisions performed exceptionally well and grew strongly, as did our agriculture division with numerous large machinery sales throughout 2023. "All of this success was off the back of the hard work and efforts of our 1300 strong team and launching new programs like our 'Customer Experience' program to better engage and support our customers throughout all regions of PNG."