N Brown seals ‘power brands’ deal with Tesco
AND SIMPLY BE
N Brown, the plus-size clothing retailer has unveiled a tie-up with Tesco for its ‘power brands’ Jacamo and Simply Be as it announced full year profits were down.
The Manchester-headquartered company said group revenues were up 2.5 per cent to £887.7m for the year to February 27, 2017, while pre-tax profits were down 23 per cent to £55.6m.
The retailer said profits were hit by exceptional costs of £25.2m related to its miscalculation of compensation owed to customers following complaints about its financial services.
The group said its three ‘power brands’ all delivered strong growth, particularly JD Williams and Simply Be.
N Brown also announced a new partnership with Tesco, through which it will sell a capsule collection of Simply Be and Jacamo lines on Tesco Direct and in some stores in Eastern Europe.
Chief executive Angela Spindler said she was ‘pleased’ with the progress made this year.
“A particular highlight was ladieswear which delivered the best performance for almost a decade as we gained significant market share,” she said.
“Our customer satisfaction rating is also now the second highest in the sector and our online metrics remain strong, with over 75 per cent of new customers coming to us online.
“Revenues from our Power Brands, JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo, were up 9.2 per cent, and we successfully turned around the performance of our Traditional segment in the second half.
“We are also very pleased with the performance of Financial Services, driven by the increasing quality of our customer loan book. “The macro-economic backdrop remains challenging for retail. “Against this backdrop we remain vigilant over our core costs and efficiencies. We are also continuing to invest in improving our capabilities and customer experience to enable future profitable growth. “The past few years have seen a huge amount of change in the business. “We remain on track to complete the final stages of our systems programme by summer 2018. We are focused on driving the business forward, both in the UK and internationally, and I am very confident in our prospects.” Angela Spindler