Luxury department store Liberty has posted a pre-tax loss of £6.4 million, largely as a result of the cost of rolling out its Liberty of London brand.
Liberty's total group revenue increased to£45.8 million in the year to December 31 from£44 million the previous year. Pre-tax losses deepened from£2.3 million the year before.
Sales at Liberty's iconic London flagship store were up 2 per cent to£38.3 million.
The best performing part of LIberty's flagship was menswear, where sales jumped 18 per cent to£4.6 million. Sales at its gifts division climbed 14 per cent and beauty was up 4 per cent. Ladies and home generated “overall lower sales” during the year, according to Liberty.
Liberty of London sales rose 8 per cent to£3.2 million. LIberty is planning to open its standalone Liberty of London store on Sloane Street this summer.
Liberty chairman Richard Balfour-Lynn said the year had been “a story of two halves”, with the second half hit by the impact of the credit crunch at the same time as the retailer began a management restructure, during which chief executive Geoffroy de La Bourdonnaye joined on July 1.
Balfour-Lynn added that a£3.5 million investment in Liberty of London had affected the profit and loss account over the short term. A cost of£2.7 million for re-organisation meant that EBITDA for the year was a loss of£3.6 million against last year’s£500,000 loss.
He said: “The board is confident that Liberty has the structures, products and people to produce an improving platform for growth in the current year.”
Liberty will launch a transactional web site in June and explore initiatives to widen its customer base.
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