Summary
- Superdry’s channel revenue from the ecommerce stream was up 33.8 per cent for FY 21.
- Next Plc raised its profit-before-tax central guidance for FY 21 to £720 million.
UK’s fashion brands got a fresh lease of life when the non-essential businesses were allowed to open in the second phase of the lockdown. Fashion retailers have suffered during the subsequent lockdowns in the UK as they largely remained shut, dependent on government support. Only those who were having some online presence managed to do business, and that too in a very small size. Though despite adversity are showing signs of improvement with demand improvement.
The UK based fashion brand Superdry Plc released its trading statement today, saying that its group revenue for FY21 was down 21 per cent on a y-o-y basis to £556.6 million. However, the group’s channel revenue from the ecommerce stream was up 33.8 per cent for the full year. Another high street fashion retailer, Next Plc’s trading statement raised the retailer’s profit-before-tax central guidance for FY 21 to £720 million, up by £20 million from its earlier forecast made in April.
With the release of the results, the share prices of both the fashion firms jumped at the London Stock Exchange. While the SDRY share price was up over 17 per cent, that of NXT rose over 3 per cent in the early morning trading hours on Thursday.
Good Read: How has Superdry managed to run its operations despite the temporary closure of some stores?
Superdry Plc (LON: SDRY)
Julian Dunkerton, CEO Superdry, said that the firm’s strong ecommerce presence helped mitigate the impact of its store closures. The ecommerce revenue was up 33.8 per cent to £202.9 million for FY21. The company returned to revenue growth in the last quarter of the year with group revenue of £118.3 million for the period (Q4 2020: £117.4 million). The company has hastened its commitment to ensure that all its cotton items are organic by 2025. The group saw a 14 per cent reduction in total stock units for the entire year, driven by clearance and reduced-buy sales.
The firm’s closing new cash at the end of the financial year 2021 was seen to be £39.4 million. The company said that it was hopeful for good growth in FY22’s revenue and profitability as compared to this year provided no more store lockdowns take place.
The share price of SDRY was seen to be at GBX 324.50 at 11.53 AM on 6 May, up 17.57 per cent from the previous close.
Also Read: Next's Shares Soar Over 2 Per Cent After Showing Optimism for FY22
Next Plc (LON: NXT)
Despite the 10-week closure of the firms’ retail stores, its full price product sales plummeted merely by 0.6 per cent for the thirteen-week period to 1 May. The lost sales were made up in the segments of online sales of NEXT Homeware (12 per cent rise as compared to the same period in 2019), third-party brands via LABEL (67 per cent rise as compared to the same period in 2019) and NEXT Childrenswear (2 per cent rise as compared to the same period in 2019), along with a 67 per cent jump in Overseas online sales.
The last three weeks to 1 May saw the total full-price sales going up by 19 per cent as compared to the same period a year ago.
The share price of NXT stood at GBX 8,330.00 at 11.54 AM on 6 May, up 2.51 per cent from the previous close.
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