• Home
  • V1
  • Fashion
  • Laura Ashley: lower-priced fashion to boost business

Laura Ashley: lower-priced fashion to boost business

By FashionUnited

loading...

Scroll down to read more

Fashion

ANALYSIS_ British retailer Laura Ashley Holdings closed a tough year, confident in what lies ahead and aiming to conquer back their customers with a more reasonable priced fashion offering. A strong Christmas period helped to offset the company´s struggles during the

previous months.


"We spent a large part of the first half looking at every part of the range and spoke to a lot of our customers and were able to get a lot of information on what they liked from prints to quality, fit and price," finance chief Sean Anglim revealed.

The fashion and furniture retailer also admitted that it may have alienated its core customers by making its clothing too expensive after fashion sales - which account for a fifth of the business - fell 6.5 percent, reported 'CITY A.M.' "We took certain categories where we were maybe overpriced like separates, knitwear and trousers and brought them down to a more acceptable level," Anglim said.

After declining 2.2 percent in the first half, total like-for-like sales in the last six months of the year to 25 January rose by 1.2 percent, which Anglim attributed to a stronger Christmas quarter. The company said it believes that this progress can be maintained.

Laura Ashley to re-gain customers' trust with lower prices

Profits before tax and exceptional items fell four percent to 19.3 million pounds, although they were still 1 million pounds above the forecast of Cantor Fitzgerald´s.

Commenting the results, Chairman Tan Sri Dr. K P Khoo said: "I am encouraged that, despite a challenging first half, we have seen good like-for-like sales growth during the second half. We will continue with the progress we have made in developing our brand, growing our product ranges, improving our systems and enhancing our online business. These initiatives, together with the growth of our international franchise business, will remain our primary focus.

"We feel confident we have addressed the challenges faced during the past 12 months with our fashion collections and have a clearer understanding of what our customers demand in quality, price and style," the group said in a statement.

The stock saw its 'buy' rating reaffirmed by analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe. The firm currently has a 35 pence target price on the stock.

In a gesture towards their investors, the board at Laura Ashley Holdings will issue a final dividend of 1 penny per share, taking the total dividend for the year to 3.5 pence per share. At last close before releasing these results, the company´s market cap was of 167 million pounds.

Angela González Rodríguez
Laura Ashley