Fashion retailer Laura Ashley, which was formed at Carno, near Newtown and still has a call centre and distribution centre in Newtown, has recorded a £24.1 million profit - almost double the previous year's figure.
However, the company has warned of tough trading times ahead and shares in the business have fallen slightly. The warning comes as the company's Finance Director, Sean Anglim, said like-for-like sales since the year end on the 28 January 2011 had fallen 4.2 per cent. The company's statement blaming a "general weakening in the consumer economy."
Laura Ashley, which also has a store in the Bear Lanes Shopping Centre in Newtown, is still a major employer in the town, albeit much reduced from its heyday in the 1980s and early 1990s when it employed hundreds of people in Carno and Newtown.
The site of the company's headquarters in Carno remains on the market.
