Jigsaw’s parent company has filed its results for the 12 months to the end of January with the company making only a narrow – and lower – EBITDA profit this time as profitability was impacted by investments in brand marketing and people that didn’t generate a return at the levels expected.

The midmarket womenswear retailer faced a challenging economic backdrop as increases in the cost of living and inflation dented consumer confidence. And although the company managed to record a like-for-like sales rise of 2.3%, which some might have interpreted as a good result, Jigsaw said this was disappointing and work is under way to deliver improvements.

So let’s look at the numbers. For the financial year revenue rose to £57.495 million from £56.779 million and gross profit edged up to £36.7 million from £36.3 million. It made an operating loss of £934,000 compared to a profit of £1.9 million in the previous year. EBITDA shrank to £700,000 from £3.6 million.

The pre-tax loss was £3.567 million compared to a profit of £816,000 a year ago the final loss for the period was similar at £3.566 million compared to £802,000 in profit last time.

On the plus side, the company said that its store estate remains profitable and continues to perform well with its customers valuing the high levels of personalised service delivered in its physical retail locations. It stores are at the heart of the business and it has continued to invest in them with new openings in Battersea Power Station and Edinburgh, as well as upgrading and refurbishing existing locations.

The retailer has also been attracting attention through collaborations with names such as Collagerie and Roksanda and has relaunched its international business online, with it saying that customers are reacting well and it’s getting strong press coverage across the US, Australia and Ireland. International expansion remains a key area of potential growth for the business.

During the year in question it also saw a change of leadership with Beth Butterwick stepping down and Hash Ladha taking over last November.

Ladha is the executive who was successfully turning around Oasis and Warehouse before the sudden onset of the pandemic saw those businesses being sold to Boohoo. At Jigsaw, he’s been clarifying the proposition and refreshing the leadership team and the company said it’s been seeing encouraging results from his initiatives in respect of autumn 2024 trading.