Web sales slash losses by a third at trendy High Street chain Whistles

BOOMING online sales at upmarket high street fashion brand Whistles have helped to slash losses by more than a third.

Despite closing some outlets, Whistles said a 35pc increase in online sales last year had boosted turnover by 18pc to £68.9m.

Losses narrowed 34pc to £3.8m, compared with £5.8m a year earlier, according to results posted on Companies House.

The firm now plans to continue to build its internet business in line with the consumer shift toward online shopping. Data from Springboard suggests footfall in the last trading week before Christmas fell by 7.1pc year-on-year, while on Boxing Day it plummeted 5.9pc. The retail sector is also being hammered by rising costs and low consumer confidence.

Whistles became a wardrobe staple after former chief executive Jane Shepherdson reinvented the brand to see it become popular with the Duchess of Cambridge and Samantha Cameron.

It has 44 UK stores and also sells its clothes in Hong Kong, Switzerland and through department stores Harrods and Selfridges in the UK and Bloomingdales in the US.

Shepherdson, 56, left Whistles in 2016 after it was bought by South Africa’s Foschini Group for an undisclosed sum. The group also owns Phase Eight, which it snapped up in 2015.

Since her departure, the brand has been headed up by brand director Helen Williamson, 47, managing director Justin Hampshire, 49, and creative director Nick Passmore.