Business is booming for an Oxfordshire software retailer.

Bicester-based Dream Direct, which specialises in mail order of titles targeted at the family market, saw sales increase by 91 per cent to £1.35m for the Christmas and New Year period to the end of January.

The company is predicting February sales this year will be double last year's.

Dream Direct moved to Granville Way, Bicester, 18 months ago when it expanded. It has a workforce of 25 which shifts an average of 5,000 software packages a week.

Management put its success down to strong marketing and customer loyalty, with repeat business now making up 40 per cent of sales.

Chief executive Robert Colquhoun said: "The level of spend over the last three months is a reflection of the growing size of the family software market, which is still largely untapped. Our fully comprehensive range of titles and a focused approach to marketing and are critical factors in building strong customer loyalty."

With a current database of 170,000 customers Dream Direct is now established as the UK's largest direct seller of family software.

Forty-five per cent of households own a computer, compared to 28 per cent four years ago when Dream Direct started. That is expected to rise to 60 per cent next year.