Matalan - comment

It's coming now. On the last two calls, if not more, management had been flagging its desire to add more fashion content and capture more of the higher-margin sales early in the season. That's hardly a safe strategy, and Next retail results the other day were soft. That is not a good backdrop from which to add more risk. But the retailer surely has room for a little more trend exposure, and Matalan may finally have the public mandate to supply the struggling British consumer with their daily apparel. Execution has been good, so management has to go for more volume and more margin. Never mind a little volatility.