A POPULAR toy shop in Barrow will miss out on last minute Christmas sales after its owner refused to open on Sundays.

The Entertainer, the country’s largest independent toy store, will be keeping the doors of all 149 of its branches firmly closed, because its founder is a devout Christian.

Gary Grant refuses to open on Sundays – even on December 24, when the decision will cost his company more than £2 million in sales.

The store in Dalton Road, which opened in July in the former Argos shop, recently handed over a haul of toys to the children's ward at Furness General Hospital in a further gesture of festive spirit.

The Entertainer also has stores in Workington and Carlisle.

Mr Grant believes that giving his 1,700 staff Sundays off helps strengthen family life, which, he says is already ‘under attack enough’.

He told the Mail on Sunday: "I have given the concept of one day in seven as a day of rest a lot of thought and I am not making an exception just because it is Christmas Eve.

"I value families. I have four children and six grandchildren. I employ a lot of parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties. It is convenient that everybody has the same day off, that parents can be off at the same time as their children."

Mr Grant, 59, said he was not aware of any other shops being closed on Christmas Eve – when experts expect shoppers to spend a total of £1 billion – but he was prepared to pay the price.

He said: "I have the best staff in the high street. If that is the cost of thanking them for a hard season’s work, well that is the cost."