Fashion chain Monsoon reported a 32 per cent jump in profits in the last year on the back of strong sales growth and new store openings.

The group, which has 256 Monsoon and Accessorize stores in the UK, Jersey and Ireland, said pre-tax profits rose to £32.1 million for the year to May 25 while sales jumped 18 per cent to £203.6 million.

Like-for-like sales, stripping out the effect of new store openings, increased by 12 per cent.

UK group managing director Rose Foster said the success was partly due to good sales of casual day wear ranges, while its evening wear range also sold well.

Accessorize benefited from the fashion for flip-flops, where sales of the footwear shot up 100 per cent on last year.

Ms Foster said: "The like-for-like sales were very strong. We have made really good progress with product development."

The profits growth was due to new store openings. During the year, the group opened or extended 19 stores.

Monsoon is planning to continue to increase store numbers and is aiming to open 20 to 30 in the UK and Ireland in the next year.

It is also aiming to expand aggressively internationally, from its current 69 franchised or licensed stores overseas.

Monsoon aims to expand this by between 50 and 75 in the current financial year. Profits from its international stores jumped ahead over the last year, up from £300,000 to £2.2 million.

Monsoon cautioned it was unlikely it would be able to match last year's strong like-for-like sales growth this year. Sales had slowed since the year-end. In the eight weeks to July 20, like-for-like sales rose one per cent.

The group said following its strong sales performance it delayed marking down prices and did not hold a sale preview for customer account holders in early July, which reduced like-for-like sales.

Finance director Andrew May said there had been some slowdown but the group was still expected to perform well.