Performance boost for north menswear chain

Oct 6 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

THE enterprising boss of The Officers Club says he expects the menswear retailer which collapsed at Christmas to turn in sales worth around £50m this year.

This time last year Mr Charlton was preparing to put the parent company of the Cramlington-based national retailer into administration, as the credit crunch and the deepening recession left the high street in serious trouble.

But with the new parent company TimeC 1215 firmly established and like-for-like sales at the chain up 4% Mr Charlton says The Officers Club is on track to achieve sales of £50m this year and he hopes that it can eventually see double that.

In the next few weeks new stores are opening in Manchester city centre, Bristol city centre and Cardiff city centre, which will take it past 100 UK shops.

Mr Charlton said: “The company is now profitable and we are confident of a successful long-term future.

“In three to four years we want to get back to being a £100m turnover company.”

He said its performance in 2009 had been boosted by the number of competitors on the high street who have closed down, but said trading is still “a little inconsistent”.