Laura Ashley has reported a full-year pre-tax loss and seen like-for-like and total sales fall, which the retailer’s chair put down to the underperformance of its homeware arm.
The homeware and fashion retailer posted a statutory loss before tax of £14.3m in the 52 weeks to June 30, 2019 down from a profit of £0.1m.
Its loss before tax and exceptional items was £9.8m, down from a profit of £5.6m the previous year.
Total like-for-like retail sales for the year were down 3.5%, while total group sales fell to £232.5m, down from £257.2m the previous year.
Laura Ashley also saw its online sales fall during the period to £51.2m, down from £59.7m.
Laura Ashley’s chair Andrew Khoo said the primary cause for the profit drop was down to the retailer’s home furnishing arm, and a website “re-platforming exercise” at the end of 2018.
“We have focused on the reasons why home furnishings have underperformed and have taken necessary steps to mitigate this, including adding new contemporary product to our ranges,” he said.
“We have taken active steps to listen to our customers and now believe that we are on an appropriate recovery path.”
A silver lining for the retailer was what Khoo described as the “resurgence” of Laura Ashley’s fashion business, which saw like-for-like sales grow 9.2%. Khoo said this uptick was the result of Laura Ashley improving the design of its ranges.
The results are a continuation of a torrid year for the retailer, which has already issued two separate profit warnings since January.
In February, it was reported that American investment vehicle Flacks Group was in the very “preliminary stages” of putting together a bid for the business, but the takeover never materialised.
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