The Officers Club latest to suffer slump

Dec 23 2008 By Neil Mckay, The Journal

NORTH East discount menswear chain The Officers Club is up for sale, it was reported last night.

According to the trade magazine Drapers, accountants KPMG are marketing the 180-store chain with headquarters in Cramlington, Northumberland, as a distressed sale where a downturn in fortunes prompts a low price deal.

A spokeswoman for KPMG declined to confirm or deny the reports last night, but The Officers Club made a loss before tax of £794,000 for the year to August 31, 2007, on sales of £52m.

The company was started by entrepreneur David Charlton, a former accountant, in Sunderland in 1992.

The Officers Club created its own brand names and sourced cheap clothes from factories in China, India and Vietnam where labour costs were far lower than the UK.

By the turn of the century the group, run out of a former Wilkinson Sword factory in Cramlington, was on a roll.

It grew rapidly from a single small shop in Newcastle to become Britain’s biggest sole menswear retailer after buying 65 Hammells outlets from C&A.

It has a flagship outlet in the MetroCentre as well as units in Newcastle city centre, Carlisle, Darlington, Durham, and Sunderland.

It also has stores in high profile locations including London’s Oxford Street.

In 2005 the company lost a legal battle with the Office of Fair Trading over misleading advertising, including a year round 70% off sale.

Nobody from the company was available for comment yesterday.