News Flash

Better than expected performance - Ted Baker Chief

12 Oct '09

5 min read

Ted Baker Menswear delivered a good result with sales of £39.7m down 1.5% on the prior year (2008: £40.3m). Menswear represented 51.8% of total sales (2008: 56.2%).

Sales for the period in our UK and European retail division were up 16.6% to £56.1m (2008: £48.1m). While the UK has performed ahead of our expectations, our European stores have faced challenging conditions.

The US market remains challenging and sales for the period in our US retail division were down 23.8% to $8.0m (2008: $10.5m), which in sterling was equivalent to sales down .9% to £5.2m (2008: £5.3m). During the first half we opened one outlet store in Orlando and consequently now have 8 stores and 2 outlet stores across the United States.

Ted Baker now operates 18 stores and concessions in the Middle East and Asia through our territorial licence partners RSH Limited and Li and Fung Group of Companies. The stores continue to perform in line with our expectations and we were pleased to open a further store in Taiwan during the period.

Through our licence partner we continue to develop the Ted Baker brand in Australia and our store in Melbourne, which we operate through a joint venture, has performed well during the period.

Our Autumn / Winter collections have been well received and we were pleased to announce the launch in August of Born by Ted Baker, our highly designed men's casualwear collection. The initial reaction from our customers has been positive.

We continue to deliver a better than expected performance in the UK, while conditions in our overseas markets remain challenging. Our new store in Heathrow Terminal 1 opened in September and is performing well at this very early stage. Our Boston store is expected to open in October and we will take advantage of further opportunities for new stores in the US, should they be appropriate.

We are also opening our second store in Melbourne, Australia at the end of October though our joint venture in the territory. Wholesale Trading in our wholesale business continues to be down against last year and we expect this trend to continue in the second half of the year. Licence Income Our product and territorial licences continue to perform in line with our expectations and we will continue to consider other opportunities in North America.

At this stage, we continue to exceed our expectations. However, the economic environment remains uncertain and our outlook for the current financial year remains cautious. Our costs and commitments remain under control and with our strong balance sheet we will continue to invest in the long term development of the Ted Baker brand.

We intend to make our next interim management statement, covering the trading period since the start of the second half of the financial year, in mid November.

Ted Baker PLC

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