Feb 20 (Reuters) - Troubled clothing and furnishing retailer
Laura Ashley saw pretax losses more than double in the
first half of the year, hurt by weak demand for its home
furnishing business and disruption from a change in its Japanese
franchise partner.
The company, which secured the backing this week of its main
banking lender to continue operations, posted a pretax loss of 4
million pounds ($5.15 million) for the six months ended Dec. 31,
compared to 1.5 million pounds a year earlier.
($1 = 0.7760 pounds)
(Reporting by Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick
Graham)
