STRINGENT belt-tightening and strategic cost-cutting have paid off for Mallett as one of the UK’s oldest-established and most famous antiques emporiums moves into the black for the first time in four years.
Mallett, one of very few publicly quoted antiques retailers, announced a £0.5m profit in its results for the year ending December 31 2011 compared to a loss of £1.4m in 2010.
The then Bond Street dealers have been struggling since the global financial meltdown of 2008 and quickly realised that despite a tradition stretching back over a century they could no longer compete with the frock shops and afford a Bond Street address.
As I reported last month they finally moved in February, albeit just across the road to Dover Street. The relocation is the key to Mallett’s resurgence with a £1.3m reassignment of the Bond Street lease and a hefty 50 per cent cut in rental costs.
Interestingly, sales to the United States were down from 39 to 34 per cent of the 2011 total but sales outside the US and Europe rose 75 per cent and it is these new markets which are being targeted by chief executive Giles Hutchinson Smith (above).