Strong revenue & growth for Superdry

Superdry, which now refers to itself as a Global Digital Brand, has announces a trading update covering the 16 week period from 7 January 2018, and the 26 week (the 'half year') and 52 week (the 'full year') periods ended 28 April 2018.

Superdry global brand revenue increased by 22.1 per cent to £1.604 billion in its fiscal year 18, with growth achieved in all key territories.

Group revenue growth of 16.0 per cent was driven by the continued strong progress in Superdry's capital light channels, wholesale and ecommerce, which delivered sales growth of 29.6 per cent and 25.8 per cent respectively. Superdry continues to benefit from the relative weakness of sterling, and this foreign exchange impact was approximately 60bps in the fourth quarter of the year. Store-based revenues remained under pressure. In addition, throughout the fourth quarter revenues were impacted by snow disruption in key markets and lower year-on-year average temperatures at the start of the Spring/Summer season.

The fashion retailer continues to strengthen awareness and perception of its brand through an integrated digital marketing activity, collaborations and sponsorship. Its SuperdrySounds summer music festivals campaign re-enforces the brand's global positioning and helps it creates a bond between Superdry, emerging music talent and its consumers' interest in music.

The brand's development in China remains in line with plan and underlying performance in the USA continues to be encouraging, says the company, but performance in its US store base continued to be impacted by both landlord construction disruption affecting four existing stores and lower-than-anticipated tenancy levels in two key new locations. "The disruption in these six stores plus the accelerated investment in bringing our US wholesale operation in-house has led the US business to make a loss of approximately £3m rather than our previous guidance for a small profit in the full year," the company said.

Its focus on product innovation continued. The introduction of a range of responsibly sourced down jackets, which meet high ethical standards, from a price point below £100 was particularly successful. It also delivered strong growth in our iconic Vintage Entry graphic t-shirt, supported by the resurgence of the trend for original brand graphics, while ongoing brand extension in Snow and Sport introduced Superdry to new markets and consumers. The retailer opened eight standalone Superdry Sports franchise stores in key cities around the world.

The Board anticipates that underlying full year profit before taxation, after the distribution centre migration and development market investment, will be in the range of £96.5 million to £97.5 million representing another year of double-digit profit growth.

Euan Sutherland, Chief Executive Officer, said: "Superdry has delivered another good year of brand revenue and profit growth as we have sharpened our focus on our successful global digital brand strategy. We benefit from a clear brand positioning, an agile infrastructure that serves our global consumers through a truly multi-channel proposition and

increasing operational excellence. Our multi-channel proposition means consumers can choose how they want to engage with the brand, allowing them to switch easily between our stores and our digital channels.

While the consumer environment remains challenging, we are confident that Superdry's reputation for quality, design detail and strong value for money, underpinned by our continued investment in the business, leaves us well placed. We remain focused on the growth opportunities ahead and confident in the quality of sustainable earnings growth we can deliver over the long-term."