LUXURY fashion brand Mackintosh – maker of the traditional Scottish raincoat – saw pre-tax losses widen to nearly £1.3 million as it continued to invest in its e-commerce and wholesale operations.

Accounts newly filed at Companies House showed that the venerable company’s turnover for the year to March 31 was £7.9m, slightly up on last year. Managing director Kent Nomura said that Mackintosh, whose products have been worn by the Queen and model Kate Moss, was looking to future growth.

“We plan to expand our retail business together with the e-commerce [business] within a couple of years and strengthen the retail business as well as our wholesale business globally,” he said.

Mr Nomura said that Mackintosh, which makes its waterproof coats at a factory in Cumbernauld and continues to draw on the heritage and quality of its brand, had high hopes for its e-commerce business which was launched last September. “It has begun to show good signs of improvement,” he said.

Sales have also been boosted by royalties from its Mackintosh Philosophy and Mackintosh London offshoots.

Mackintosh is owned by Yagi Tsusho, the same Japanese company that distributes Barbour. The biggest market for Mackintosh is in Asia and the Far East, which account for around half of sales. In 2016, the company opened a shop in New York to help drive the brand’s presence in the US. Mackintosh also has a flagship store in London’s fashionable Mayfair district.

The company can trace it roots to Glasgow where, in 1823, chemist Charles Macintosh invented a way of rubberising cotton to guard against the Scottish weather.