The leading home shopping group has made its first international foray, distributing 20,000 Simply Be catalogues in Germany and opening its websites to overseas shoppers.

Foreign expansion is a big opportunity for N Brown, believes KBC Peel Hunt’s John Stevenson. He rated the retailer a buy and said: “Looking ahead, with scope for potential trials in the US in 2010, we believe
international markets may represent a major medium-term earnings driver.”

The broker said that the experience of home shopping groups such as Asos, which notched up 10 per cent of its sales overseas even before targeting that market for growth, augurs well for N Brown’s web operations.

N Brown is also a favourite of Seymour Pierce, which likes its defensive qualities.

On Tuesday N Brown named former newsreader Anna Ford as a non-executive director and promoted existing non-executive Ivan Fallon, chief executive of Independent News & Media, to deputy chairman.

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