Gold strips put shine on Fennell

THE celebrity's must-have present at Christmas was a diamond-encrusted column of gold known as the Strip, costing anything from £5,000 to £35,000.

London jeweller Theo Fennell, which counts Victoria Beckham, Naomi Campbell and Elton John among its clients, reported 'phenomenal' sales of Strip pendants, earrings and rings and posted a healthy 15% improvement in like-for-like sales.

'It's been very big,' said chairman Richard Northcott. 'We sold £750,000 worth during the Christmas period.' Overall, sales of Fennell-designed products grew by 39% in December.

The product coup - boosted by a magazine ad campaign featuring a naked woman - comes just six months after the Alternative Investment Market-listed company was forced into a humiliating stock write-down of £706,000 after customers shunned its trinkets and jewels. Northcott today promised a return to profitability in the year to 31 March after last year's £1m loss.

This was despite disappointing demand in its shops for non-Fennell designed products - mainly watches - which slipped back 6% in December because of the paucity of tourists. Fennell hopes to open a Bond Street store within 12 months and is eyeing possible expansion in Manchester and Leeds.