He vowed to put the chain, which he bought out of a pre-pack administration last week, back into the black within 12 months. Kinnaird said: “The business only lost£1.5 million last year [excluding debt repayments] and we aim to raise margins by around 5 basis points from 54, which on a£100 million turnover will be a profit.
“Faith is the best mid-market brand on the high street and we think its position is perfect.”
Kinnaird and investment partner Agilo will merge their Faith, Envy and Chilli Pepper businesses to form one fashion group FEC (the initials of the three) and hopes synergies between the operations will help bring down costs.
The entrepreneur will now oversee all three businesses. Envy joint managing directors Paul Drake and Dean Argent will run retail operations and buying and merchandising respectively for the group. A new management team for Faith will not be hired, but a finance director is being sought.
FEC will test Chilli Pepper clothes in some larger Faith stores at Christmas and roll out Faith women’s footwear concessions in selected Envy stores.
Next year, it will also look at international wholesale opportunities for Faith and consider combining Envy and Faith’s head offices, but Kinnaird insisted that no redundancies were planned.
Faith’s management left the business last week.
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