High street retailer New Look brings back former executive to right ship

Alistair McGeorge, executive chairman of low-cost fashion retailer New Look, said on Monday that the high street brand's previous management should be held accountable for its weakened sales performance and dragging the company to a heavy loss as a result of it making the group "too young and edgy."

New Look plummeted to an underlying operating loss of £10.4m in the six months leading to 23 September, as opposed to a £59.3m profit over the same period a year earlier.

McGeorge, who had previously served as New Look's executive chairman between 2011 and 2013, was brought back to the group in order to resurrect the group after like-for-like sales fell back 8.6% and overall revenues dropped 4.5% in the half.

McGeorge took aim at New Look's previous management team, saying they had "alienated the core customer" as the group tried to appeal to a much younger demographic, and that they "chased sales too hard with discounts."

"Many of our problems are self-inflicted", he added.

The retailer's ex-chief executive Anders Kristiansen was let go in September after a twelve month decline in sales which he said was a result of a series of mistakes relating to product buying.

Kristiansen headed up New Look for five years and oversaw the £1.9bn sale to South Africa's Brait in 2015, which since his departure has overturned a number of his decisions, including nixing the hiring of Zara Basic head of product Paula Dumont Lopez as its new chief creative officer to reinstate Roger Wightman.

McGeorge said he would be focused on turning New Look back around in order to attract customers in their "thirties and early forties who have more money anyway."

"Our brand has a broad appeal when we target our sweet spot. We have competed very effectively against Asos and Primark when we focus on our core customer, arguably it is the younger side of the market which has become crowded with the likes of Boohoo and Missguided," the executive chairman said.

He admitted that the turnaround would not "happen overnight" and that the retailer would be stuck with its current product lines throughout the all-important Christmas period, but McGeorge, just two days back into his old role said that despite concerns to the contrary, the firm had "adequate liquidity and a good cash position."