British fashion retailer Jigsaw searching for a new buyer

Luxury British fashion retailer Jigsaw is on the look-out for a new buyer on Friday, as the company battles with weakening retail sales and rising inflation.

With that aim in mind, John Robinson, the controlling shareholder, who founded the firm in 1970, hired global auditor KPMG to help it explore the options at hand, such as the sale of a majority or minority stake to an another retailer or financial investor.

Indeed, the company told the BBC it had already received "a number of direct approaches".

The news emerged after CBI, the business lobby group, released figures earlier in the week showing the sharpest fall in September retail sales since 2009 and as the Bank of England contemplates its first interest rate hike in a decade.

That followed other data from ONS, published during the week before, showing that third quarter retail sales growth slowed to a year-on-year rate of 1.5%, the lowest since the second quarter of 2013.

Jigsaw had over 80 stand-alone stores and concessions in department stores such as John Lewis and Harvey Nichols as well as a small international presence.