Select doubles its profits as Bellingham gets on board

Value womenswear retailer Select has appointed former Laura Ashley finance director Jim Bellingham to its board and has reported a doubling of profits.

Bellingham, a familiar face in the City, left Laura Ashley in March last year and was also chairman of Texstyle World. He has been working with Select for six months as a consultant and was appointed finance director at the last board meeting.

Roger Pontin, who runs the 217-store company with co-owners and fellow directors Nigel Fisher and John Sunderland, said the appointment would be a new board position.

He said: 'He (Bellingham) will be looking at logistics and examining all costs, including shrinkage.' Pontin said the retailer had also appointed an internal auditor who would help to 'address the shrinkage issue'.

In the year to January 25, Select more than doubled pre-tax profits to£723,699, while sales increased by 10.5 per cent to£61 million. Like-for-like sales increased by 3 per cent.

Pontin said the profits growth was 'satisfactory' and was because of an increase in margin. The company also reduced its stock holding by 1.7 per cent to£4.6 million at the year-end compared with the previous year.

After adding 28 branches last year, Select intends to continue to open stores at a rate of 25 to 30 a year.

Another 12 have opened since the year-end. Pontin and the other directors ultimately have plans to continue the expansion to at least 500 stores.