FASHION and home furnishings firm Laura Ashley has posted a 62.3 per cent leap in full-year profits despite falling sales amid tougher high street trading.
The group – famous for its floral prints – reported pre-tax profits of £19.8 million as the group's advertising efforts and improved product sourcing lifted margins two percentage points to 47 per cent.
Speculation was also mounting yesterday over
Laura Ashley's plans for Moss Bros after it upped its stake in the menswear group to 5.96 per cent.
Moss Bros is already in the sights of Icelandic investor and 29.75 per cent shareholder Baugur, but Laura Ashley has been slowly increasing its holding and has not ruled out making a takeover bid.
The group remained tight-lipped on potential offer plans yesterday, saying only that Moss Bros was a "portfolio investment".
Laura Ashley's profits hike appeared to buck the trend for retail gloom, but the group joined its rivals in sounding a cautionary note.
Meanwhile, fellow high street retailer H&M also bucked a gloomy economic backdrop with a near 20 per cent jump in first-quarter profit, above forecasts and fired by strong February sales.
The world's third-biggest clothing retailer by sales made a pre-tax profit of 4.06 billion Swedish crowns (£340m).
The full article contains 223 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
