Too-trendy Jaeger on auction block

COATS has put its classic fashion brand Jaeger up for sale after attempts 'to do a Burberry' backfired. The brand's loyal customer base was bewildered by the young and trendy lines that flooded the shops this spring and summer and left the fashion division nursing an operating loss of £8.3m in the first six months of the year compared with break-even profits in 2001.

Chief executive Martin Flower said that 'the strategy of rejuvenation' which Jaeger has been following for the past two years had not worked. 'They tried to go too far too fast. They had a conscious policy of looking for younger customers but it backfired,' he said.

HSBC, appointed to oversee the sale of Jaeger and Viyella, Coats' other clothing brand, is already sending out information to interested parties, but Flower suggested he might not get the book value of £50m.

Although he was clearly disappointed with Jaeger's performance, he said keeping the two companies had never been a long-term plan and denied that he would have liked to float it off as a stand-alone fashion brand as GUS had done with Burberry.

Operating profits for the six months to 30 June more than halved to £8.4m while pre-tax profits of £4.7m were 6% down. Flower said the Thread business was on track to deliver significant improvements on last year's second half.