Performance boost for north menswear chain

Oct 6 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

Mr Charlton says its growth strategy will be different this time and rather than aiming to double its store portfolio in the coming years he will concentrate on opening larger stores.

“We will want to stay at around the number we are now, but we are aiming to open larger outlets.

“Ones in city or regional centres which will generate annual sales of £1m. This will see us offload some of the smaller stores, in market towns for example. Stores where current turnover is in the region of £250,000.”

Mr Charlton, a former accountant, started The Officers Club in Sunderland in the early 1990s sourcing clothes cheaply from Asia and selling them under its own-brand labels.

It grew quickly over the next ten years reaching a turnover of £100m but had struggled since it was forced abandoned its “70% off everything” slogan back in June 2004 in the face of an Office of Fair Trading inquiry.

In recent years it has refocused itself on the 16-26 market with its own labels such as Petroleum proving popular.

When it crashed into administration in December last year it had about 150 stores, with the TimeC 1215 buying over 100 back from the administrators.

Despite having almost £5m in cash the previous parent company Petroleum and Casanova Fashions owed around £10m to its landlords and its inability to meet a £3m Christmas day rent bill led to the administration.

Mr Charlton said the recession has seen landlords willing to adopt a more flexible approach to leases and rent payment periods.

The company employs around 1,000 staff across the UK.