White Stuff, the lifestyle retailer beloved of yummy mummies, has bucked the economic gloom by notching up record profits for the 2009 financial year.

The company – founded by two former ski bums George Treves and Sean Thomas, who started selling T-shirts from a van in the Alps – have posted a 42% rise in underlying profits to £13.3m in the year to April 26, 2009. Total sales at the 60-strong chain, whose slogan is “lovely clothes for lovely people”, rose 34% to £58.4m, with home-shopping sales up 70%. The sales did not come at the expense of profit margins, which edged up by 1.3%.

The retailer, which is run by Sally Bailey, a former Miss Selfridge brand director who worked with Jane Shepherdson at Topshop, is planning to open 30 stores over the next three years. It is one of the fastest-growing private companies in Britain. Since it started life as a ski and surf clothes shop, the brand has transformed into a lifestyle label, which considers its competitors to be Boden, Jigsaw and Gap.

A year ago the founders considered selling part of their 80% stake in the business, but the market turned against them and no deal was agreed. Bailey said that despite tentative signs of economic recovery, there are no plans to revisit a stake sale for two years, when the group will carry out another strategic review.

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