Bonmarché annual sales rise 5.3 percent, announces changes to its board

Total sales at Bonmarché increased by 5.3 percent for the year ended March 26, 2016, while like-for-like sales increased by 0.7 percent. For the 13 weeks, total sales grew by 5.2 percent and like-for-like sales increased by 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent including online. The Board expects that the PBT for the year ended March 26, 2016 will be at the lower end of the guidance.

Commenting on the results, Beth Butterwick, Chief Executive Officer of Bonmarche said, “Post-Christmas, trading conditions have continued to be quite challenging, with the exception of January where we saw a higher than average demand for autumn/winter sale stock. Although helpful in clearing these ranges, the continued colder weather has been unhelpful in kick-starting real demand for spring products.”

Announces changes to its Board

The Board also announced the appointment of Mark McClennon as an independent Non-Executive Director with immediate effect. He will serve on the Audit, Remuneration and Nomination Committees. He is currently Global Vice President for IT at Unilever, leading IT in relation to the growth agenda for Unilever globally, across marketing, ecommerce, R&D and sustainability. He joined Unilever in 1993, and has held a variety of senior roles across the business.

The Board also appointed Sergei Spiridonov as a non–independent Non-Executive Director. He is the nominee of the company`s majority shareholder, BM Holdings Sàrl (BM Holdings), an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners and he replaces BM Holdings’ current nominee, Michael Kalb with immediate effect. Kalb will become BM Holdings’ board observer as provided for under the relationship agreement between BM Holdings and the company.

Sergei is currently a Group Chief Operating Officer of Sun European Partners, the European adviser to Sun Capital. Prior to joining Sun European he led the strategic transformation team at Tesco and before that he was a partner with McKinsey and Company where he worked with a wide range of consumer and retail businesses.

“I am delighted with Mark`s appointment. His experience gained over more than twenty years within Unilever will bring to the Board skills and knowledge which will be especially valuable given the developing business change agenda within Bonmarché’s strategy,” John Coleman, Chairman, adding, “I would like to welcome Sergei to the Board. His knowledge and background, particularly in the consumer space, will be valuable going forward and we look forward to continuing our good relationship with our majority shareholder.”