Land of Leather is to halve its expansion plans for its next financial year following a continued slump in sales.

Land of Leather chief finance officer Clive Hatchard said that in the financial year to July 2009, the retailer will open between two and five stores, instead of its usual minimum of 10. This financial year, it will have opened 16 stores.

“Our strategy remains unchanged and there will be no knee-jerk reactions, but we will be running a tighter ship when times are tough. Any interest rate cuts will take at least a year to kick in,” he said.

Hatchard said there are no plans for store closures or redundancies.