High street chain Ted Baker has saved more than £35m in rent through negotiations during the 53 weeks ended 30 January and it expects this number to continue to rise.
The chain, which reported a 44.2% drop in turnover to £352m during the period and saw its pretax loss grow from £77.6m to £107.7m, said it had negotiated and delivered rent savings of £8m during the year and had benefitted from a further £27.8m of turnover-related rent savings.
“We will be continuing our programme of rent renegotiations in the year ahead to reflect the new commercial realities,” said the company.
Trading for the first 12 weeks of Ted Baker’s 2022 financial year shows turnover down by 19.9%, with store sales down 40.7% – a marked reduction on the 73.1% in 2021 – and e-commerce sales up by 4.5%, compared with a 25.9% rise in 2021.
Despite the “new commercial realities” and store sales still being down, the group said it was planning to grow its global footprint in the coming year and open 10 new stores in strategic markets around the world.
Ted Baker closed four stores during the year under review, reducing its total square footage by 4.8% to 421,435 sq ft.
Chief executive Rachel Osborne said: “We are making good progress against our strategic transformation plan and Ted Baker is increasingly well placed to take advantage of the significant growth opportunities ahead of us.
“While the impact of Covid-19 is clear in our results and has amplified some of the legacy issues impacting the business, Ted Baker has responded proactively and is in a much stronger place than it was a year ago.”
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