Land of Leather chief finance officer Clive Hatchard told Retail Week that store openings will be reviewed for the next financial year. “We have two stores planned to open at Easter that will go ahead, but we will review everything from there onwards,” he said.
Land of Leather had accelerated its expansion over the past three years, opening about 15 stores each financial year. It has 109 stores in the UK and Ireland at present. Last year, it increased its target from 140 to 160 store openings by 2013.
Hatchard was unable to give a definite number of openings planned for the next financial year, but said: “We will still be pursuing openings this year, but those sites that are marginal will be deferred. We will only open stores in locations that are at the top of our list.”
He insisted that the Land of Leather model is not broken and no changes would be made to buying or supply chain. “Our model offers good value for money and we are always evolving our product range in line with our customers’ needs. It is a tough market at the moment and we are not unusual in finding trade difficult,” he said.
Land of Leather’s total sales order intake dropped 16.6 per cent from October 29 to January 3, with like-for-like sales orders down 25.5 per cent.
The retailer said it expects the challenging market conditions and low levels of consumer confidence to result in a significant slump in profits for the year ending August 2.
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