At Marchpole Holdings Annual General Meeting to be held on 6th September, 2007 morning the non-executive Chairman of Marchpole Holdings plc, Christopher Phillips, will give the following statement and update on current trading.
'At the time of the announcement on 28 June 2007 of our results for the year ended 31 March 2007 I was pleased to report continued significant improvement in the business with increased turnover and profitability.
The Group continues to evolve into a diversified international luxury brand management business with a globally recognised portfolio of fashion brands. Our global reach is expanding and we now operate in the UK, Continental and Eastern Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East.
The current financial year has started in line with expectations with our Spring /Summer 2008 collections having been well received and forward order books building as anticipated. Sales of Emanuel Ungaro and Ungaro Homme in Europe, including the UK, are encouraging and in line with our expectations and demand for the new Emanuel Ungaro first line, designed by Franck Boclet, has exceeded our expectations.
Our wholly owned brand Jean Charles de Castelbajac ('JCC') continues to enjoy both increased sales, and increased licensing income. On a like-for-like basis JCC sales have delivered an increase of 5%, and increased licensing income has derived from both new licences and royalty income which has more than doubled on existing licences.
Good progress continues to be made with the Emanuel Ungaro and Ungaro Homme licences where we continue to work very closely with the House of Ungaro. A recent development is the signing of a five year royalty and licensing agreement for Colombia which represents our first breakthrough into the South American market.
This agreement will see the opening of an Emanuel Ungaro flagship store in Bogota and distribution through a further 28 specialist menswear outlets. Furthermore, two new flagship stores are to be opened in the near future in Bucharest and Azerbaijan, extending the brand's reach.
The development of our JCC brand is progressing in line with strategy. Two significant long term partnership agreements have recently been signed with the world famous headwear company New Era and one of the world's original denim companies, Lee Cooper, Under the terms of the Lee Cooper agreement we will distribute an exclusive 'JC-DC' denim collection to 250 Lee Cooper stores.
The JCC brand continues to strengthen its presence in the Far East. Most recently a new distribution agreement has been signed with Coronet, a member of the Itochu group, for Japan and later this month we will be opening of a new JCC flagship store in Tokyo.
We continue to develop and sell the Boateng collection and sales and orders have grown from last year, despite the dispute over licence arrangements with Bespoke Couture. This was settled by the Court of Appeal in Marchpole's favour in December 2006 and our commitment to the brand remains unaltered.
We are pleased to report that the integration of Greenmark Limited, the ladies footwear designer and importer, which was acquired in March 2007, has been successful and we are seeing increased sales and improved margins.
Homebody, the luxury clothing company which designs, manufactures and distributes ladieswear, maternity wear and menswear which was acquired last year has been fully integrated into the Marchpole business model and continues to make good progress and increase sales and distribution. A European multi-lingual website went live this week and we are confident that this will deliver a significant increase in internet sales.
We therefore look forward to the future with confidence. The business continues to perform in line with expectations with a pipeline of new opportunities from which the Company is well placed to capitalise, and deliver returns to shareholders.
For technical reasons Resolutions 7-11 will not be placed before meeting. An explanatory letter is being sent to shareholders and these resolutions will be put to shareholders at an EGM which will be held at the earliest possible date.
Marchpole Holdings plc
