Miss Selfridge to launch lifestyle range
Miss Selfridge is launching a range of lifestyle products next month and will broaden its clothing range in an effort to boost sales.
The retail chain’s poor performance pulled Sears womenswear profits down by more than 90 per cent in the first half of the year.
Chief executive Liam Strong confirms the chain is launching a range of bath and beauty products. The stores will also broaden their clothing range after sales suffered during spring and summer because fashions only appealed to a minority of shoppers, says a spokeswoman for the group.
The comments follow yesterday’s disappointing results for the first half of the year. Trading profits fell by nearly a third to 30.3m. Womenswear profits fell from 4.1m to 300,000 during the six-month period.
Strong denies rumours that the chain, along with Wallis, is up for sale. However, he says that the group intends to boost profits through “fewer, bigger brands”.
Verdict retail consultant Clive Vaughan believes that Strong’s statement about a smaller number of stronger retail brands implies a sell-off of chains such as Miss Selfridge and Dolcis.
