// Jigsaw is opening three new stores this year in Manchester, Islington and Kingston as it bounces back from its CVA
// CEO Beth Butterwick said the retailer could open about 20 new sites in the next few years
Jigsaw is reopening stores less than two years after closing a large portion of its portfolio, The Times reports.
The womenswear retailer, which shut about 30 of its 76 stores as part of a restructuring programme back in 2020, has three new locations confirmed for this year, in Manchester and in Islington and Kingston in London.
This month it opened a new store at the newly opened Battersea Power Station shopping centre in south London, bringing its total number of stores to 45.
Chief executive Beth Butterwick told the title that Jigsaw could open about 20 new sites in the next few years.
“We will open as many stores as we can agree and find the right location,” she said.
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Butterwick, said most of the stores would be in market towns and regional city centres and on smaller sites.
“We feel really positive about the role of stores. The high street has gone through a battering and some high streets are reshaping themselves. Going back into locations where we were before feels like the right thing to do,” she told the Times.
Like a host of other retailers, Jigsaw was hit hard by the pandemic.
Back in 2020, the retailer’s creditors approved its CVA proposals, resulting in a quarter of its store estate closing – leading to 200 job cuts.
But last year the business returned to profit as store closures and investment in digital paid off.
It made an operating profit of £1.2 million in the year to the end of January 2022, compared with a loss of £21 million in the same period the year before. Sales jumped from £38.7 million to £47.7 million, while pre-tax losses fell from £8.7 million to £1.3 million.
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