Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Fashion and homewares retailer Laura Ashley achieved a strong performance in the first half of its financial year, growing sales in all product categories.
In the 26 weeks to July 31, like-for-like sales in the UK increased 6.2%, while total UK sales rose 5.5%. Group sales put on 5.7%.
Chairman Tan Sri Dr K P Khoo said: “I’m delighted with the strong performance of the company for the first half of this financial year. In a difficult economic climate, Laura Ashley has continued to demonstrate the strength of its brand and has recorded positive like-for-like sales growth across all product categories.
“Our e-commerce and international channels have continued to grow and become increasingly important to our multi-channel strategy.”
He said the company would focus on developing Laura Ashley’s “distinctive product offering as well as improving operational efficiency”. However, he warned that the consumer environment continued to be uncertain and that the company remained cautious about performance in the rest of the year.
Meanwhile, Laura Ashley has signed a licensing agreement with Best Brands Consumer Products to create a range of kitchen textiles and tabletop linens for North America. They will be launched next autumn.
Laura Ashley said it was “excited to have [Best Brands] join our growing family of Laura Ashley licensees.”
