N Brown to top UK Xmas clothing sales growth-source

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Home shopping firm N. Brown (BWNG.L) will report a bigger rise in underlying sales on Thursday than any British clothing retailer which has so far published Christmas trading data, an industry source said.

The source said on Wednesday that the rise in sales at stores open at least a year for the 19 weeks to Jan. 10 would not be as high as the 14 percent reported in the comparable period the year before.

But it would be well above the 2.8 percent rises reported by JD Sports Fashion (JD.L) and privately owned New Look, which have so far topped the Christmas sales performances of British clothing retailers.

N. Brown, which specialises in selling clothes in larger sizes, declined to comment.

The firm, whose catalogues include Simple Be and Oxendales, said in October that pretax profit rose 20 percent to 40.8 million pounds ($59.4 million), in the 26 weeks to Aug. 30 on a 12.6 percent rise in sales to 322.8 million.

(Reporting by Mark Potter; Editing by Erica Billingham)