Monsoon boss's brother on board

MONSOON founder and chairman Peter Simon has appointed his brother, Anton, to the board of the fashion retailer as its sole non-executive director.

Anton Simon represents Beauchamp (UK), the Simon family trust which owns more than 75% of the group's shares.

Beauchamp requested board representation last September and minority shareholders in the group have also made calls for independent nonexecs to be brought on to the board.

News of the appointment was accompanied by another set of record results from the group, with profits for the year to 29 May up 15.4% to £44.1m, on sales up by 17.4% to £271.4m.

Like-for-like sales were up by 5%. The current year has got off to a flying start, Simon said, so much so that the summer sale had been delayed for a week.

This has depressed current trading figures, leaving underlying sales 5% down in the seven weeks to 17 July. But, for the six weeks to 10 July, like-for-like sales are up 4% and total sales by 20%.

As previously announced, there is to be no dividend payment as the company pours its resources into expansion. It recently bought 21 High Street stores from Dixons and will be converting these into Monsoon or Accessorize shops within the next four months.

Monsoon Men is being launched in October in 12 branches, including a stand-alone outlet in Covent Garden.

The group said it will create more than 700 new jobs in the year ahead.