Quiz unveils £200m IPO to ‘achieve its potential’

● Chief executive says AIM float will accelerate growth ● Fast-growing group planning to raise £10m

Scottish women’s clothes retailer Quiz yesterday unveiled its plan to list on the London Stock Exchange in a £200 million initial public offering (IPO).

The Glasgow-based business said that it will use proceeds from the listing on the junior AIM market to accelerate growth and it will allow the company’s founders, including chief executive Tarak Ramzan, to cash out part of their holdings.

It is believed the float will raise about £10m of new money.

Quiz, with 73 standalone stores and 167 concessions in the UK and Ireland, made an operating profit of £10.3m last year on revenues of £89.8m. Underlying earnings have risen 30.6 per cent betweem 2015 and 2017.

The group, which was founded in 1993 and employs about 1,350 people in the UK, is also present in 19 countries through 70 international franchise stores and concessions.

Ramzan said the company was “delighted” to announce the flotation, which he said would enable the retailer “to achieve its exciting global potential”. He said: “Quiz is a strong and distinctive omnichannel fashion brand with a clear customer and product focus.fast fashion is in Quiz’s DNA and our ‘just in time’ model ensures that we are always responding in real time to new trends as they emerge.

“I am very confident that we have a well invested infrastructure, a fantastic team and a clear strategy to accelerate further the growth of the Quiz brand across all channels and markets.”

The retailer has also proposed the appointment of Peter Cowgill, the chief executive of sports fashionwear group JD Sports, as non-executive chairman.

Cowgill commented: “I am delighted to be joining (the group) at this exciting time. (It) is a dynamic company with a fantastic product offering and proven routes to market.

“The group is ideally placed to capitalise on a wide range of growth opportunities, particularlyonline, where the brand has experienced very strong growth.”

Quiz specialises in occasion wear, evening wear and what it calls “dressy casual wear for fashion forward women” in the 16-35 age range.

The retailer said yesterday that current trading “remains strong” in the first two months of its current financial year, with total revenue growth of 37 per cent, and online revenue growth of 118 per cent. Among its well-known concessions are Debenhams and House of Fraser. Sales at H & M rose 4 per cent in May compared to the same month last year, the women’s clothing group said yesterday. This was despite what the company called “tough market conditions” in several countries in the first half of last month. “Sales improved considerably in the second half of the month,” H & M said. The company has expanded strongly in the past year, with the total number of stores jumping to 4,498 from 4,077.