Cotton On’s big numbers revealed

A RARE spotlight has been thrown on one of Australia’s biggest but most secretive retailers, revealing for the first time the big pre-tax profits and revenue being generated by the Cotton On clothing chain.

Founded by low-profile Geelong billionaire Nigel Austin, Cotton On has become a ubiquitous presence in malls across Australia.

Cotton On sells casual-style dresses, T-shirts, jackets, jumpers, activewear, underwear, shoes, sleepwear and other fashion accessories in more than 600 stores in Australia.

It has also expanded around the world and the group owns accessories and footwear brand Rubi, stationery chain Typo, and youth fashion business Factorie.

Mr Austin, 46, has shunned the spotlight for decades after opening his first store behind a butcher’s shop in 1991.

That strategy has extended to Cotton On and its associated entities, which are spread across a labyrinthine collection of corporate entities in Australia and abroad, all usually and eventually owned by Mr Austin and cousin Ashley Hardwick.

But financial documents lodged for the first time with the corporate regulator, just before Christmas, reveal the extent of Cotton On’s national and international success.

The maiden accounts lodged for a company called

COGI (until last July named Cotton On Group Investments and only formed in June 2019) show a group that has almost $300m in pre-tax profits and revenue of more than $1.2bn worldwide.

COGI had earnings before interest and tax, depreciation and amortisation of about $295m for the year to June 24, 2020, from revenue of $1.25bn, according to the accounts.

A depreciation, amortisation and impairment expense of $221m was a big contributor to profit before tax being about $13m after finance costs of almost $62m. After paying corporate taxes of about $24m the group made a statutory net loss of $11.4m.

The accounts show the breadth of Cotton On’s international presence. About $275m of the group’s revenue came from Asia. Another big source was the US, which accounted for $213m including wholesale income.

COGI has about $150m in cash on its balance sheet and bank loans of about $189m. It has total assets of almost $1.4bn and net assets of about $120m after liabilities.

The financial document COGI lodged with ASIC says the business employs about 15,700 people.

Cotton On has claimed it has more than 20,000 employees, which suggests 75 per cent of the group’s operations fall under the COGI umbrella and all of the international operations.