N Brown pre-tax profits up 13%

Revenue grew 4.9% for the half year to £338.7m with ecommerce sales up 21% to £128m.

N Brown chief executive Alan White said: “We are pleased with N Brown’s financial performance against what can only be described as difficult trading conditions. We are encouraged by the loyalty of our customers, as over the last six months we have recorded growth across all product ranges spanning the portfolio of brands, with particularly strong performance from our newer titles.”

He added: “The flexibility of our business model which focuses on niche customers and products, together with our international expansion plans and the recent acquisition of High & Mighty, makes us confident we will continue to deliver growth and are on track to deliver our expectations for the current financial year.”

Last month N Brown bought some assets of High & Mighty for £1.6m. It said that it sees a major opportunity to develop its online business and will reintroduce a catalogue in November.

Its German language site Simply Be launched in February has reached sales of £1.1m with an associated loss of £700,000.

Current trading has been a little weaker with revenues for the six weeks to October 10 ahead 1% on last year. Online sales were ahead 15% for the period.