Bonmarche's back to basics tactics help to steady profits

The Wakefield-based retailer said profits tumbled 39.4 per cent to £5.8m in the year to April, with like for like sales falling 4.3 per cent.

Bonmarche said a combination of Brexit pressures and unseasonal weather contributed to a “challenging” retail market.

Stephen Alldridge, finance director of Bonmarche, said the results were “certainly not alarming”.

He told The Yorkshire Post: “We updated the market last September that our profits would be in the range of £5m-£7m. The fact that we came in at £6.3m, it’s certainly not alarming because it was well in that range.”

Mr Alldridge said the clothing market has declined creating a challenging environment.

“Our task is to improve the offer we make to our customers, improve our propositions so that we can steal share and grow that way,” he added.

Chief executive Helen Connolly has been in the post now for less than a year and the womenswear chain is looking to modernise.

She said: “The three key themes of the strategy going forward are simplification of how we think of our customers, modernising the product proposition and better end-to-end execution of what we do.”

Ms Connolly, who replaced Beth Butterwick last year, said that Bonmarche previously had four customer profiles it would service.

“One of the first things I wanted to do was have one sweet spot customer profile for our colleagues internally to focus on,” said Ms Connolly.

“By having a clarity of who our customer is certainly will help us execute and move the product proposition on accordingly,” she added.

The chief executive says she is looking to modernise Bonmarche’s proposition while not alienating “more classic customers who are very loyal to us and come to us on a very regular basis”.

Bonmarche is also working with a more “flexible and agile” supplier base, allowing it to adjust to customer needs more quickly.

The Wakefield-based company is still working with its Chinese supplier base but is working with it to “speed things up”. Bonmarche has also introduced suppliers closer to home.

Ms Connolly said: “We’ve introduced suppliers closer to home from countries such as Turkey, Morocco and Egypt, where we can get product in six to eight weeks and we know we’re responding to what the customer wants, when she wants it.”

Ms Connolly says she has been encouraged by the performance of Bonmarche’s online business. She said: “Online performance last year was not sufficiently good but we did see through the course of the year a significant improvement. Our online performance in Q1 last year was -4.1 per cent.

“By Q4 that improved to +15.4 per cent. Certainly we’re improving our online offer and our customers are beginning to shop with us in a much more multi-channel fashion.”

‘Overwhelmed’ by the passion of the company’s workforce

Chief executive Helen Connolly was previously senior buying director for George at ASDA.

She joined Bonmarche in August 2016 taking over from Beth Butterwick, who led the company on to the stock market.

Ms Butterwick left the business to take on the role of chief executive of Karen Millen.

Ms Connolly says she was “overwhelmed” by “the passion of everybody that works for Bonmarche”.

The chief executive has been supported by long-standing finance director Stephen Alldridge.

She said: “It’s fair to say since I arrived at Bonmarche Steve and I pretty much instantaneously have worked really closely together.

“It’s great to have a really good blend of new and old so you can respect the history but you can also drive the business forwards.

“He’s been brilliant for me and given me an incredibly warm welcome.”

The improvement in online performance is down to “doing lots of small things better”, says Ms Connolly.

She added: “Our current trading is in line with forecasts so we’re optimistic about the future.”

The new chief executive has put in place a new retail structure at Bonmarche.

Ms Connolly said: “We’ve got more area managers working with our store managers and our store colleagues on a more regular basis to really help improve the store standards.

“Investing in this retail structure is one of the most exciting things we’ve done.”

Bonmarche has introduced in-store ordering allowing customers to have products delivered to the store or to their homes.