All Saints suffers six-month sales decline as it reduces discounting

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All Saints like-for-like sales plunged every month for six months during the second half of 2012 as the premium fashion retailer focused on a more full-price strategy.

Figures indicate that like-for-likes in July, August and November all fell by a double-digit percentage.

The biggest fall was in August, when sales plummeted 26.4%, while October saw the smallest decline of 1.2%, according to Drapers which has seen the figures.

Overall, sales are expected to be down by about £10m for the year to the end of January 2013.

The results come in the same week it has emerged that several high-profile members of the All Saints team have left the business.

Chief merchandising officer Matthew Corin, who joined in March last year, and Paul Seston, chief operating officer of All Saints in the US, are among those to have departed.

Senior womenswear designer Jenni Cain, who has been at All Saints since 2007, and Tom Hutt, global head of music - responsible for the All Saints Basement Sessions initiative - have also left.

The reasons for the departures are unclear it is understood there are likely to be more exits from All Saints’ senior team over the coming weeks. A new head for the US business is expected to be appointed at the beginning of March.

Sources close to the retailer claimed sales had been particularly dampened by disappointing womenswear trading. However, a spokeswoman for All Saints said sales had been “managed down deliberately” as part of a new strategy to reduce discounting.

“Like-for-likes are down but gross margin is up more than 10%,” she added, saying the retailer expected to show operating profit of around £6m for the full year to the end of January 2013.

All Saints was rescued from the brink of administration by a consortium led by private equity firm Lion Capital in May 2011. This was later followed by high-profile departures including that of former chief executive Stephen Craig in September 2011 and chairman Kevin Stanford in October last year.

At the time, Lion Capital said its intention was to get the business “back on track” and last September hired William Kim, former Burberry senior vice-president of retail and digital commerce, as chief executive.

All Saints will open a store in Beverly Hills in the US and its first store in Canada by the end of March.

In November, the company reported a pre-tax loss of £68.8m, and an EBITDA loss of £9.1m, for the year ending January 29, 2012.