A temporary Ted Baker store could make its way to Watford as sales in London suffered with people working from home.

The fashion retailer revealed that sales fell 44 per cent during its past financial year, considering that the brand thrives of trendy formal wear and the majority of the UK mainly dressed casually over the lockdowns.

CEO Rachel Osborne has now revealed her transformation plan to help the company continue to recover, while stating that there has been a “very pleasing” demand since stores reopened.

The recovery plan involves greater focus on e-commerce, as well as temporary stores in satellite locations around big cities – including areas such as Watford and Reading.

Temporary stores could help attract people who are continuing to avoid travelling into major cities during the last stages of Covid restrictions, and they would be closed if shopping habits reverted back to pre-pandemic patterns.

Although Ted Baker saw a 22 per cent rise in online sales over the last year, bringing in £145 million, it was unable to rely on the internet as much as other clothing firms, simply because demand dried up.

The company’s focus on suits and other more formal clothing was “adversely affected by the increase in working from home” during the pandemic, Ted Baker said.

There is evidence of this in the difference between its menswear and womenswear sales.

Men’s clothing sales dipped by more than 50 per cent, while women bought nearly 41 per cent less clothing.

Pre-tax loss rose 29 per cent to nearly £108 million, Ted Baker said.

The chief executive said: “While the impact of Covid-19 is clear in our results and has amplified some of the legacy issues impacting the business, Ted Baker has responded proactively and is in a much stronger place than it was a year ago.

“During the period, we delivered robust cashflow generation, fixed our balance sheet, refreshed our senior leadership team and today we are upgrading our financial targets for the second time since outlining our new strategy last summer.”