Strong sales growth at Arcadia

Sir Philip Green, the British billionaire businessman and clothing guru, has announced strong sales growth at his Arcadia fashion chain in spite of a challenging summer for High Street fashion chains.

Sir Philip owns the Arcadia fashion empire with his wife Tina and the chain includes Burton, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge.

Profits at the group increased from £288.6 million to £293.3 million after a 2.1% increase in like-for-like sales. Sir Philip said it was a very admirable performance in spite of one of the worst non-summers in many years for many clothing retailers.

He added that the new year started well in September, however, much of the good work was reversed after a warm October dampened demand for autumn and winter ranges.

In addition, Topshop sales are booming as trendy clothes designed by Kate Moss are particularly popular. The supermodel linked up with Topshop for a reported £3 million in 2006 and her new Christmas collection went on sale this week.

Sir Philip commended Kate’s work and said the range has been very successful although there are mixed reports of the success of her autumn and winter ranges in the press.

Sir Philip continued by saying young shoppers keen on fashion are still spending money but older customers looking for clothes to suit the weather kept their money in October.

Total sales at Arcadia were up 5.2% to £1.86 billion in the 12 months to 1 September. Sir Philip concluded by saying he is committed to spending money across all of the brands and is growing all areas of the business.

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