Plus-size retailer finishes the ‘heavy lifting’
THE boss of plus-size fashion retailer N Brown today said the “heavy lifting” was over as it reported its best womenswear sales performance for almost a decade.
The chain has been transforming from a catalogues business to a digital one under boss Angela Spindler and today reported a 2.5% rise in revenue to
£900.7 million in the year to March 4.
Womenswear sales, which have stuttered on High Streets, were up 4.2% over the year and 10.4% in its second half, their strongest growth since 2008.
The group also announced a deal to sell Simply Be and Jacamo ranges through Tesco Direct. Spindler said there were several more partnerships in the pipeline. Her overhaul has a year to run, but she declared the “heavy lifting” complete and insisted N Brown was “now firmly and clearly an online retailer”.
The costs of the revamp hit underlying profits, which slipped 8.7% to £82.6 million. A £22.9 million charge relating to compensation over PPI mis-selling also took its toll on the bottom line.
But investors shrugged off the profit fall and the shares surged 12.25p, or 5.4%, to 238.62p.
N+1 Singer analyst Matthew McEachran described the company’s update as “encouraging”, with “a number of positive indicators for the future”.
@clarehutch