Moss Bros good sales progress

Menswear group, Moss Bros, have announced a revival of like for like sales in the weeks up to January 29 2011 and said trading remains in line with company expectations. It’s great news for the tailoring experts who also saw growth in all areas of the

business including the Hiring sector of the company (Moss Bros Hire), which achieved record sales. Retail sales were up like for like by 8.9% whilst hire sales increased 10.9%. In tough times, the hire sector has proved the most resilient as the largest part is the wedding business.

Commenting on the results, chief executive officer Brian Brick said, ‘we have made good progress on all of the operational priorities we set out at the beginning of the year and this has had a very positive impact on trading, despite the difficult trading environment last year.’

Cost control and product innovation are means to boost business over an expected worldwide difficult financial year.

Although a huge confidence boost for Moss Bros insiders – like for like sales are continuing to improve(up 7.8%) for the first few weeks of 2011 – the company are remaining grounded and on the job.

‘We cut costs by £3m per annum in the new financial year,’ Brick told Reuters, ‘we’ve overhauled the size range and our product offering...we are in a recovery situation and therefore there is a
lot of self help that we give the business.’

In an announcement Brick said, ‘Current trading reflects strong like for like growth and our continued focus on the operational priorities, with the support of our strong balance sheet, gives me great confidence that we will fully achieve the potential for this business.’

Pre tax loss was also considerably down from last year - £3.9m to £2.7m.

It comes as solid news for the group which have been implementing a turnaround plan – starting with the sale of the 15 store Hugo Boss franchise for £16.5m to Germany’s Hugo Boss– to focus on growth and development of their own brands.