Monsoon rings up 34% profits rise
Fashion chain Monsoon today voiced concern about the possible impact of the London terror attacks on business as it posted a 34% hike in annual profits to £59.1m (€85.2m).
The group, which also owns Accessorize, said it was concerned about the incidents and the “general prediction of the lack of consumer confidence on the high street”.
But despite the “uncertain” outlook, Monsoon said it had made an encouraging start to its new financial year.
Like-for-like sales, stripping out the impact of store openings and closures, were 16% higher in the seven weeks to July 16 – including the week after the July 7 attacks. This compared with an 11% increase during the year to May 28.
Monsoon said strong summer ranges had contributed to an excellent start to the year.
The company revealed on Friday that its founder and chairman was in talks about a possible bid to take the company private. It said Peter Simon was at the early stage of discussions to buy the 24.6% stake he and his family do not own.
Monsoon boosted its trading space by 30% when it bought 47 former Etam sites in April. This will increase the number of Monsoon and Accessorize outlets in the UK and Ireland to around 380 once the stores have been converted.
During the year, total sales increased by 34% to £363.7m (€524.5m). Pre-tax profits after exceptional items, such as costs linked to the Etam deal, rose 20% to £53.1m (€76.6m).
The group said the newly-launched Monsoon Men brand, which it has rolled out into a number of Monsoon stores, was performing in line with expectations.
Monsoon also has 241 international stores in 29 countries including Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France, Greece, Gibraltar, Iceland, Italy, Lebanon, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
It is in the process of trying to buy five stores run as a franchise in France.
