Profits at the Trespass outdoor clothing empire owned by Afzal and Akmal Khushi fell for the second year running but the brothers remain confident that earnings will improve when recently-opened stores bed down.

Accounts for the brothers' international sportswear company, Jacobs & Turner, which combines manufacturing and retailing operations, show pre-tax profits fell by 22% to £5,975,851 in the year to June 2007.

The latest fall came after earnings tumbled 33% in the previous year, when the company was hit by problems in a key sales territory and moves by some of its larger customers to source their own goods.

However, directors appear to believe that moves to grow the company's retail business to reduce its reliance on selling goods to other firms, will come good.

In their report to the latest accounts, directors of Jacobs & Turner highlighted a 1% increase in turnover from £35,492,732 to £35,906,256.

The increase followed the opening of around 20 Trespass stores, and contrasts with a sharp fall in sales in the previous year.

The company managed to hold gross margins steady at 50%, in line with directors' expectations.

This suggests that it did not have to resort to discounting to maintain sales, despite fears of a slowdown in consumer spending.

Directors pinned the blame for the fall in pre-tax earnings on the cost of expanding the retail estate.

"Additional shops have been opened during the year which attract additional set-up costs and also require greater administration costs. These additional costs and those costs associated with maturing shops opened in previous years have led to a decrease in operating margins, but as shops mature the directors expect this to reverse," they wrote.

The Trespass website shows the company currently operates 48 stores in the UK, compared with 22 two years ago. The empire stretches from Fort William to the Isle of Wight, off southern England.

In October, the company bought the Fort William-based Nevisport outdoor clothing chain which was in liquidation.

Trespass-branded clothes are sold through franchises and concessions in continental Europe.

The Khushi brothers are unlikely to have lost much sleep about the apparent reverse, after years in which the success of the family-owned firm has helped them cement their standing among Scotland's richest people.

The brothers are ranked 48th equal in the latest Rich List for Scotland compiled by the Sunday Times, which estimated their wealth at £105m.

In the year to June, directors of Jacobs & Turner shared total emoluments of £223,182. The highest-paid director received £110,556. The company, which employs 360 people, did not pay a dividend.

Afzal and Akmal Khushi's father, Mohammad, who died in March last year, bought Jacobs & Turner for just £1000 in 1966, 15 years after imigrating from India to Glasgow in 1951. He expanded its range from winter clothing to include sportswear, summer clothing, and ski-wear.

The sons joined the business in 1977.

The publicity-shy Khushi brothers were not available for comment.