Jan 20 (Reuters) - British fashion and homewares retailer Laura Ashley Holdings Plc (ALY.L) said it expected full-year pretax profit to be significantly higher than earlier estimates on strong like-for-like performance over Christmas and early January.

Laura Ashley homewears

Last month, the company said it was confident that full-year trading would be ahead of its expectations, even as some of the bigger European retailers warned of cold weather biting into their sales over the important Christmas trading season.

Analysts on average were expecting a pretax profit of 15.8 million pounds ($25.3 million) for the company for the year ending Jan. 29, according to Thomson Reuters.

Laura Ashley shares, which have gained 13 percent since the company reported a like-for-like sales growth of 2.7 percent in the first 19 weeks of the second half, closed at 19.25 pence on Wednesday on the London Stock Exchange. ($1=.6257 Pound)

(Reporting by Tresa Sherin Morera in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)