Struggling women's fashion retailer Noni B has promised to find savings as it faces a third straight year in the red.
In just his sixth week in the job, chief executive Scott Evans delivered the sobering news that Noni B expects to incur a loss in the first half of the 2014/15 year, and over the full year.
That follows a $7.8 million loss in 2013/14, as sales dropped 7.7 per cent, and a $3.5 million loss a year earlier.
Noni B would have a clearer idea of the size of its next loss after the critical Christmas period, Mr Evans told the company's annual general meeting.
Mr Evans, the former head of Bras N Things, said Noni B would find savings by streamlining logistics operations, but would not cut staff.
"I didn't talk about cost cutting, I talked about being more efficient as a business," he told AAP.
The retailer caters for mature-aged customers, and has broadened its product line in recent years by offering more discounts.
Mr Evans said Noni B would concentrate on winning back its core customers.
"(It's) not necessarily making it more upmarket but taking the garments back to the quality level that the customer has always had," he said.
Noni B was recently bought by private equity group Alceon, which currently holds about 80 per cent of its shares after a $16.4 million takeover bid.
The retailer's founder Alan Kindl, an industrial chemist who co-bought two women's fashion stores in 1977, stepped down at Friday's meeting.
"This is going to be very hard for me," he said.
"As you can tell, I'm very emotional about it."
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