Debt-hit New Look may close 100 shops

Fashion chain New Look is shutting up to 100 shops to tackle a £1.1 billion debt. It has not been revealed which of its stores will face the axe.

However, bosses are expected to target towns with more than one branch.

The company has stores in Market Hall, Cannock, Rugeley, Lichfield, Stafford, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Kidderminster and Birmingham.

Chief executive Alistair McGeorge said New Look's "performance went backwards" in the year to April 2012, with pre-tax earnings falling from £191million to £147m. He said progress had been made and that profits would improve this year.

The company has been under increasing pressure from the likes of Primark, which has been expanding, as well as supermarkets selling more and more clothes.

Mr McGeorge said that many towns had three branches of New Look which were unnecessary as younger shoppers turned to the internet to buy clothes.

At least 50 shops will shut but the company has said it could be as many as 100.

Rival chain Peacocks has reopened some of its shops including one in Wolverhampton and at the Merry Hill shopping centre in Dudley. It followed the closure of many branches after Peacocks was bought by the Edinburgh Woollen Mill.