Laura Ashley grows Irish profits

British ladies fashion and home furnishing chain Laura Ashley has more than doubled it post-tax profits in the Republic to €560,308 as the struggling chain grapples with difficult conditions in its home UK market.

Newly filed accounts for Laura Ashley (Ireland) Ltd show that improved profits were delivered in spite of a slight decline in sales, which fell in the year to January 2005 to €9.23 million from €9.47 million the previous year. The turnover figures exclude VAT on sales.

The former fashion icon, known for its floral print clothes, has struggled to find form in its home market, with five chief executives since 1998, when it was taken over by Malaysian United Industries.

The chain has three outlets in the Republic, including a prominent store in Grafton Street, Dublin.

The others are at Blanchardstown, west Dublin, and at Merchants Quay, Cork.

The improved margin performance brought operating profit at these stores to €762,770 in the latest full-year from €331,870 a year earlier. The pretax profit of €823,106 was up from €381,548 in 2004.

There was no response from the chain's headquarters in London when asked about the current level of trading at the Irish unit.

While European and British retailers have flooded into the booming Irish market, Laura Ashley has maintained only a modest presence here.

The chain has been forced to cut costs radically in view of losses in its the UK, where retail trading conditions are at their worst for many years. This follows the closure of its European unit in 2003.

Last September Laura Ashley reported operating losses of £200,000 (€295,000) on sales of £100.7 million in the six months to July 30th, down from £1.3 million in the same period last year.

The results for the Irish unit show that it had retained profits of €560,308 at the end of its last financial year. While the company's chief executive Lillian Tan said that its fashion sales had shrunk as a proportion of total sales, there was no breakdown in the accounts of divisional sales in Ireland.

However, the figures show that the year-end value of garments in stock in Ireland grew to €355,425 from €186,631 in the previous year. In the same period, the value of furnishing stock in hand fell to €307,716 from €577,933.