Charity shops have defied the recession and increased their profits by 4.1 per cent in the past year, according to the Charity Shops Survey 2009.

While the gross income of the 69 shop chains in the sample fell by 3.1 per cent to £526.1m, their costs fell even further, by 4.9 per cent to £414.6m, leaving a collective profit of £111.5m.

Charity shops have now increased their profits for four years running, and in eight of the last 11.

Oxfam continues to make the most money from charity shops, despite a slight fall in its profits of 0.3 per cent to just over £21m.

Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation and Salvation Army all increased their profits to close the gap in second, third and fourth places.

The biggest percentage profit increase was shown by Scope, which was up by 168 per cent, taking it to number 20 in the profit ranking with a surplus of £772,000.  

Survey author Diane Sim said: “UK charity shops have survived the UK recession and many are thriving, benefiting from increased consumer demand, affordable rents, a strong supply of volunteers, new retailing concepts and the new income stream afforded by gift aid.

“The key challenge facing charity shops will be to fend off strong competition for quality donated goods.”

Gift aid

The number of charities claiming gift aid on items sold has more than doubled from 16 to 33 per cent, raising a total of £6.6m.

High profile charities claiming gift aid on donated items include British Heart Foundation, Sue Ryder Care, Barnardo’s, PDSA, Sense and Shelter.