Department stores group Beale, where Panther Securities and its chairman Andrew Perloff recently took a 29.72% stake, says that trading has picked up since the end of the snow.First quarter sales were 3.3% down on the same time the previous year. The six weeks since then have seen a 3.9% increase in sales. That is not enough to fully offset the previous downturn and sales for the full period were 1.8% down. First quarter sales were achieved at a better gross margin. Operating expenses have been cut so Beale made an improved profit in the first quarter. Net debt was £6.43m at the end of October 2009 and Beale is operating within its bank facilities. The board has met Perloff since the stake was increased and he says that he wants to help them to grow the company. The shares were acquired from Lawdene, which has cut its stake to 4.5%. Gartmore took its stake up to 6.6% after the Panther stake announcement.