Austin Reed chief steps down
Clothing retailer still struggling for sales
January 15 2004
Austin Reed is looking for a new chief executive after Roger Jennings stepped down in the wake of continuing poor sales at the clothing retailer.
Jennings is leaving ‘to pursue other interests’, with group executive director David Lowbridge, satnding in until a suitable successor is appinted,
Austin Reed saw retail sales fall by 5.2 per cent in the 22 weeks to January 10, with Like-for-likes sales were down 11.3 per cent. The company said trading had shown ‘marginal improvement’ on the sales performance for the first 15 weeks of the same period, reported in November.
The company reaffirmed UK retail margins for the second half will be below last year, but said cost savings should keep pre-tax profits in line with forecasts.
