Asos sews up significant sales growth

● Increase in last months of 2017 boosted by strong UK performance

capital expenditure was likely to be at the upper end of previous guidance of around £200m to £220m.

Beighton said: “Following this strong start to the year, we remain confident in our fullyear guidance and delivery of our planned investments in infrastructure to support our global ambitions.”

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the business is seeing sales growth “that traditional retailers would give their eye teeth for. While clothing sales at Marks & Spencer went backwards over the festive period, and Next was applauded by the market for eking out 1.5 per cent growth, ASOS is making retail look easy by turning over almost a third more sales than last year.”

Khalaf also said that while the firm may attract “little more than a puzzled shrug from most people over the age of 40, Asos is now bigger in terms of its market capitalisation than M&S.

“Asos isn’t shackled with a dividend payment either, because shareholders are happy for it to reinvest for further growth, such are the global opportunities in front of the company. However, with a share price trading around 70 times earnings, Asos needs to keep growing fast to keep up with market expectations”.