Womenswear retailer Monsoon is bucking the gloom hanging over retail with plans to open new stores in 2023 after returning to profitability this year.
The retailer has been “surprised” by a big post-Covid pivot to customers shopping in stores, with chief executive Nick Stowe telling the Financial Times that Monsoon had plans to open another 22 stores in the current financial year and could open close to 50 in the future.
“We could probably get up to 200 stores in the UK if we wanted to,” he said.
“The retail landscape has changed quite a lot… and the business rates changes next year could make quite a difference to the store portfolio – they make [opening stores] more attractive.”
In the recent budget, chancellor Jeremy Hunt froze business rates in England and changed the rules so that reductions in rents feed through to business rates immediately rather than over three years.
The retailer currently operates 154 stores split between its Monsoon and Accessorize sister fascias, down from 230 before the pandemic.
It caps a remarkable turnaround for the retailer, which collapsed into administration during the first coronavirus lockdown in early 2020.
Founder Peter Simon swooped in to save the business by writing off an existing loan and injecting additional funds.
The news comes ahead of the publishing of Monsoon’s latest set of annual results on Companies House, which will show sales of £240m in the year to August 27, with a pre-tax profit of £17.8m and net cash of £22m.
Sales across continental Europe, the Middle East and Asia were up 24% during the year, while ecommerce sales represented 45% of total sales for the period.
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