Fashion chain Matalan is bucking recessionary trends and planning to set up new stores to add to its already existing 203 outlets, along with pursuing a fast track proposal to increase the store count in 2010.
Matalan had recently declared net profits of £102 million in the year ended February 28, 2009, up from £89.4m from the earlier year. In the first 14 weeks of the new financial year, like for like sales have improved by 8.2 percent.
This has come about due to a store refurbishing plan undertaken by the management in the last few months, which has been well accepted by the consumers along with adding a new range of clothing for men and women.
The company had spent £16m in renovating the outlets in the last fiscal year and is planning to spend a similar amount in the current year. Around 120 stores have been revamped till date which emphasizes on visual merchandising and navigation.
Matalan is a clothing and homeware store and was started by Mr John Hargreaves in 1985 and most of the Matalan stores average out at a size of roughly 30,000 square feet, emphasizing the space strategy that the company employs.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India