A suitable case for optimism

Menswear retailer Moss Bros Group is hoping demand for suits from office workers looking to improve their appearance to avoid the redundancy axe, will help it narrow full-year losses.

"If it's tough, people will look after themselves for work. They do not want to stand out as the scruff in the office," said chief executive Brian Brick.

"So they do buy the new suit, they do dress up, they will go without other things," he said after Moss Bros posted a wider first-half loss but said it was encouraged by trading in the second half so far and was on track to meet internal expectations for the full year.

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With the Government cutting expenditure and raising taxes to rein in a record public deficit, Moss Bros is braced for a reduction in consumer spending this winter. However, Mr Brick reckons the firm will cope.

"Yes it might get tougher but we've got enough in our locker that we can combat any potential downturn," he said.

Moss Bros was attracting a younger customer that is less impacted by economic downturn, while its wedding business was proving resilient to macro headwinds.

"The weddings that will be booked for next year will still happen. If people are going to have tailcoats, they will have tailcoats," said Mr Brick.

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Prior to yesterday's update, shares in the group, which owns the Moss, Cecil Gee and Savoy Taylors Guild chains and runs the UK franchise operation of Hugo Boss, had lost a quarter of their value over the last year, underperforming a 2 per cent rise in the UK general retailers index.

Moss Bros made a pretax loss of 3.3m for the six months to July 31 versus a loss of 3m in the same period last year.

Revenue rose 7.9 per cent to 65.6m, with sales at stores open at least a year up 11.6 per cent and gross margin down 0.5 percentage points to 55.5 per cent.

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