Noni B upbeat despite closing 47 shops across country

WOMEN’S fashion specialist Noni B has revealed it closed more than 40 outlets across its chains over the past financial year.

Noni B, which owns brands including Millers, Katies, Crossroads, Autography and Rivers, yesterday said in a trading update it had 1379 shops at the end of last month.

That was 47 fewer than at the same time a year earlier, meaning one in every 30 shops was shut down.

The group, led by chief executive Scott Evans, said for the year to June it expected to report earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of about $45 million on an underlying basis, which excludes one-off items.

That was in line with an earlier forecast and represented an increase of about 21 per cent on last year’s result, it said.

“Noni B is very pleased with this result in the current climate and, in particular, the group’s sales performance through the key Christmas and Mother’s Day trading periods,” it said.

The company said total sales over the year to June grew to about $864 million. But like-for-like sales, which stripped out the impact of shops that had opened or closed, dropped 4.3 per cent. The fall was “in line with management and integration plan expectations”, the group said.

That was a reference to Noni B’s $31 million deal in May last year to buy the Millers, Katies, Rivers, Crossroads and Autograph chains from Specialty Fashion Group.

The deal was wrapped up early last July, meaning those brands were part of the Noni B stable for almost the entire financial year.

In its trading update, Noni B said transaction and restructuring costs of $9.l million were not included in its underlying earnings figure. Online transactions continued to grow and now accounted for 9.8 per cent of all sales, the group said.

Noni B shares fell 1.5 per cent, or 4c, yesterday to $2.69.