DISCOUNT fashion chain New Look, which has 18 Hampshire branches, has revealed plans to create 1,500 jobs after reporting a 17.7 per cent rise in profits.

The company made an operating profit of £163m in the year to March 27 – a time that also saw bosses abandon plans for a stock market float.

Chief executive Carl McPhail said that the group hoped to create jobs in the coming year, adding that staff would receive a bonus for the second year running.

“We’ve created 1,900 jobs in the last year, we hope to create 1,500 jobs in the coming year,” he said. “Staff will receive a bonus for the second year running. It’s important we motivate everybody”

Details of the bonus were not disclosed.

Mr McPhail said that the company was also considering increasing pay for staff.

New Look shelved plans for a stock market flotation in February, blaming the retreat on turmoil in the financial markets.

The Weymouth-based group had hoped to raise about £650m in the stock market listing but its plans were thrown off course by fears over the market turmoil triggered by Greek debt levels.

A previous float in 2008 also had to be abandoned due to a lukewarm response from investors.

Mr McPhail said that flotation plans were currently neither “ruled out nor ruled in”.