Clothing company Slimma has slipped to a full year loss, blaming the results on the challenging trading climate and a substantial decline by its lingerie brands.
In a results statement yesterday, the company said the year had begun with badly with unseasonably warm weather in the autumn/winter of 2006 and this was exacerbated by a combination of poor summer weather conditions and customer caution due to concerns about the economy.
"This, together with a substantial loss of contribution by our lingerie brands owing, in the main, to the exit of one of the brands' largest customers, contributed to an operating loss for the year of £863,000 against an operating profit of £170,000 last year," said Slimma.
The pretax loss was £1.01 million against a profit of £170,000.
Turnover for the year, which ended September 28, fell to £15.7 million from £18.55 million.
With the exception of the company's premier brand, Frank Usher, which managed to increase its UK order books during the year, all the company's other brands struggled - the firm blaming the situation on "unfavourable market conditions" and customer caution due to interest rate rises.
The loss of its key lingerie customer, Contessa, was a major blow - Contessa was sold to LaSenza during the financial year.
To avoid further deficit, the company opted to realign the lingerie brands' expenses to more closely match revised sales expectations for the new financial year.
Despite the situation, Slimma, based in Leek, Staffordshire, said it remained confident of returning to a profitable position. It has moved all the brand's manufacturing to Macedonia to make savings. :
