Struggling Levi £57m in the red

STIFF competition in Europe has helped pushed jeans group Levi Strauss around £57m into the red in the past three months. Restructuring aimed at halting a five-year slide in sales cost the US firm a one-off $171m (£120m), leaving it with losses of $80.9m in the second quarter ended 26 May.

Excluding the charge, its second-quarter income fell to $15m from $43m a year earlier. Sales fell 12% to $924m.

'We were hit by stiff price competition in Europe but our US and Asia-Pacific businesses met our expectations,' said chief executive Phil Marineau. He said the company was on track to stabilize its sales by year-end.

Levi said in April it would shut six of its remaining US plants and slash 22% of its workforce as part of the restructuring, in which it shifted its focus to marketing from manufacturing.