Surfer brands blamed for the pre-tax losses incurred by Blacks Leisure.

Blacks Leisure Group has reported a pre-tax loss of £14.4 million for the trading year to 28 February 2009.

The Group, which includes Millets, Blacks, Freespirit and O’Neill, suffered a mixed trading year. The Boardwear division, which comprises of the latter two store chains was the weakest arm, and reported a loss before tax of £13.3m, making up the large majority of the total loss.

The company had previously announced it would exit the unprofitable O’Neill contract by transferring the UK business to O’Neill Europe at the end of the spring/summer 2009 season.

According to the Group, the Boardwear market has been declining for a few years, and in an effort to minimise future losses, eight of the Boardwear stores have been rebranded to an Outdoor format, and are already showing encouraging signs.

Millets and Blacks, of the Outdoor division, achieved a pre-tax profit of £4.2m, a solid performance in some very tough trading conditions.

Group Chairman, David Bernstein, said: “The Group has experienced a difficult year in a particularly challenging trading environment. Our core Outdoor division maintained a sound performance, however, our Boardwear division continued to underperform.

“Against this background we are continuing the programme of radical change and this is now beginning to produce the expected benefits.”

The Group said that the new trading year had already experienced a positive start, with like-for-like sales up 1.2%, though the Boardwear division was still struggling.