Dress-down and suits lift Austin Reed

By FIONA WALSH
Updated:

 

REPORTS of the death of the suit were greatly exaggerated - but so too are today's tales of the demise of dress-down.

According to fashion group Austin Reed, City men are getting back into their suits while at the same time continuing to build up their casual wardrobes, preferring now to mix and match according to their daily schedule.

After being battered by the dress-down trend, suit sales at Austin Reed began recovering last November, said chief executive Roger Jennings. But there has been no corresponding fall in casualwear and Jennings believes both have become staple parts of the working wardrobe.

So while sales of the group's new 'reed' smart/casual range surged by 26% last year and now accounts for more than a quarter of menswear turnover, sales of the traditional suit also ended their long decline, resulting in a 3% like-for-like increase for the Austin Reed menswear division.

This was despite a disappointing performance from the womenswear side, which Jennings said moved too far away from its traditional tailoring towards to occasion and casualwear.

Elsewhere in women's fashion, the Country Casuals business turned in another strong performance, pushing like-for-like sales ahead by 11% on the back of the new Petites range.

The success of the Petites range took the group by surprise, admits Jennings. 'We expected it to build up gradually but the demand has been huge and it now accounts for 8% of the business.'

With almost one in three women falling into the petite category, he sees substantial growth ahead. Womenswear accounts for around 60% of Austin Reed's business and helped the group push profits ahead by 21% to £8.2 million, as sales for the year to 31 January rose by 6% to £116.2 million. The dividend total is raised by 3% to 8p.

The current year has got off to a good start, with like-for-like sales up by 10% in the first eight weeks. The licensing division pushed profits up from £1.9 million to £2.1 million and a number of key licences in Japan and the Far East were renewed during the year.

Redevelopment of the flagship Regent Street store, a listed buildingopened in 1926, is going ahead and is due for completion in summer 2003. As well as increasing sales and profit, it will provide a platform for the relaunch of the Austin Reed brand internationally, said Jennings.

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