Mosaic Fashions falls into loss after Rubicon distractions
- Published: 28 April 2008 10:30
- Author: Jessica Price Brown
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- Last Updated: 28 April 2008 10:30
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Mosaic Fashions, the company behind high street chains Oasis, Coast and Karen Millen, recorded a £30.2 million pre-tax loss for the year to January 26.
Mosaic Fashions, which is owned by a Baugur-led investment group, saw sales rise 49% over the year thanks to the acquisition of Rubicon Retail which owned Principles, Warehouse and Shoe Studio Group.
However the group was hit by difficulties around the integration of the two businesses and it slipped into the red against a pre-tax profit of £17.2m the previous year, after it made an early repayment of loan notes to Kaupthing bank and paid a higher tax charge. EBITDA fell slightly from £72.2m to £71.9m during the year.
Chief executive Derek Lovelock told The Financial Times: "It was a tough year and overshadowing all of these results [was] the assimilation of the Rubicon brands." He added that the performance of some of Mosaic Fashions' businesses undoubtedly suffered because of the acquisition of Rubicon in October 2006 and the delisting of the group in October 2007, which took up a significant amount of management time in a difficult retail climate.
The company said it expected to return to profit next year and that its cash position remained strong.
