Jacques Vert feeling the cold

Jacques Vert, owner of the Windsmoor women’s coats and fashions brand, added to the gloom on the high street yesterday as it revealed sales growth had all but ground to a halt.

The group, which also owns the Jacques Vert, Planet and Precis labels, said like-for-like sales were up just 0.2 per cent in the 22 weeks since the start of May, after rising 1.7 per cent in the first nine weeks of the period.

Jacques Vert, which sells through almost 1,000 outlets in the UK, Ireland and Canada, warned that sales had weakened further in the past three weeks and it was too early to say if this would continue.

The retail sector has suffered a number of casualties amid a squeeze on consumer spending. Womenswear retailer Alexon was bought out of administration on Thursday.

Jacque Vert – established in 1972 by two London tailors – made profits of £5.3 million in its latest full year, to end-April, and finished the period with cash of £10.1m. Sales for the year were up 2.6 per cent at £118.4m. It acquired the “quintessentially British” Windsmoor brand when it took over William Baird in 2002.