Aurora's fashion sense sees group step up growth

Aurora Fashions, which has 55 stores in Yorkshire, was formed in March last year to buy the chains after the collapse of former owner Mosaic and its Icelandic backer Baugur.

The company, which also owns the Karen Millen brand, reported a 36 per cent rise in underlying earnings to 17.8m for the six months to July 31 and said it was moving to the next stage of its development ahead of schedule.

The latest part of its plan has seen Aurora appoint managing directors at each of its four brands for the first time.

The line-up includes Margaret McDonald, who has taken the helm at Coast after previously holding the role of chief executive at shoe chain LK Bennett. It has also appointed Hash Ladha, formerly marketing and operations director at fast-growing online fashion retailer ASOS, as director of Aurora's multi-channel operations.

Mike Shearwood, the chief executive of Aurora, said: "Appointing MDs to each of our brands is a significant milestone and demonstrates we have now moved, earlier than originally planned, into the next stage of our development. Our focus is on growth."

Like-for-like sales rose five per cent in the half-year, while online sales improved by 34 per cent and the company added 37 new stores. It now has 1,508 shops in 46 countries, including 205 Coast, 250 Oasis and 307 Warehouse outlets in the UK.

Mosaic, which owed an estimated 400m to the Icelandic bank Kaupthing, was put into administration but the brands were immediately sold to a new company majority owned by Kaupthing and existing management.

The move helped save around 8,700 jobs.

Aurora has already consolidated distribution operations from three sites into one, migrated all four brands to a single IT platform and completed a cost reduction programme.

Mr Shearwood, a former deputy chief executive, stepped up to the top job last year when Derek Lovelock moved to the role of executive chairman.

Mr Lovelock hailed the results as "excellent", saying: "Our suppliers and partners have worked with us to deliver this growth."