Women’s sportswear retailer Sweaty Betty is to slow down its store expansion programme and has strengthened its multichannel offer.

Sweaty Betty chief executive Simon Hill-Norton wants to focus on stores that push its brand harder and, as a result, the retailer will be “thinking much harder about location and size” and give “even more attention to the in-store customer experience”.

Sweaty Betty has also launched a catalogue that was sent out to about 50,000 customers, as well as being distributed in Zest magazine and Virgin Active gyms. The catalogues will be published at least each quarter, with the summer issue being distributed with Elle magazine.

Hill-Norton said: “We are now a full multichannel retailer, withsalesthroughstores, online and via a catalogue.

“And, with the catalogue, we can reach our customers in many different ways, so the stores that we open will be more considered and will have a bigger role to play in building our brand profile.”

In January, Sweaty Betty switched the majority of its stock to own-brand labels, excluding footwear, for which it stocks brands such as Adidas and Nike. Hill-Norton said: “The end of last year was tough, but for the first three months of 2008 we have seen strong like-for-like growth.”

Sweaty Betty starred in popular TV show Coleen’s Real Women in February, where it found a model for its ad campaign.