Jacques Vert, a womenswear clothing retailer whose shares are decidedly out of fashion with investors, has become the latest retailer to succumb to the consumer pinch. In a recent trading update covering the year to 26 April, the company said annual profits would come in somewhere between £4m and £4.5m, substantially below the £5m forecast in the market.

In common with competitors, Jacques Vert, which sells four brands – Windsmoor, Planet, Precis and Jacques Vert – mainly in the UK, Ireland and Canada, warned it had experienced some deterioration in trading towards the end of its financial year, being the key Easter selling season for the group. As a result, full-year like-for-like sales were 0.5% lower than the previous year.

Encouragingly, however, Jacques Vert flagged up a year of strong cash generation. At year-end, net cash balances stood at £2m, versus net debt of £900,000 a year earlier. Stock levels were well controlled, and are expected to be lower than at the previous year-end.

Jacques Vert, which reported pre-tax profits of £2.6m from £58.8m sales for the half to 27 October, has performed creditably and profitably in the recent tough retail climate. Yet with the outlook increasingly unpredictable and challenging to say the least, the shares offer a high degree of risk and are best avoided in the near term.

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Jacques Vert	AIM	£16.84m	8.75p	0.00p
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