CHURCH’S DOWN AT HEEL AS SALES SLIDE

CHURCH’S, the luxury shoe brand, has revealed that its sales slumped to a 40-year low of just £6.1m last year.

That was 57pc down over the year before.

Annual accounts showed pretax losses for the 149-year-old company – whose hand-made shoes were worn by Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond film GoldenEye (right) – widened by 53pc to £24.7m.

Church’s trades globally through 62 Church’s stores as well as other stockists.

Lockdowns kept the doors of its nine UK outlets closed for months last year.

The company said: ‘The year has been challenging. The group is expecting growth on this year’s results.’

Church’s has been in the hands of Italian fashion giant Prada since 1999. It employed 339 people last year.

It remains to be seen whether sales of formal attire will fully rebound.