Superstar retailer Superdry heads back into profit

Superdry, the Cheltenham headquartered global retail brand, has headed back into profit after four years.

Despite a revenue decline of 1.9 per cent, gross margin gains more than offset the decline in sales driven by an increase of +12 percentage points in the full price mix, with growth across stores and ecommerce, up 5.1 percentage points and +7.7 percentage points year-on-year.

Group revenue for the 26-week period ending 23 October was £277.2 million, up from £282.7 million in the previous period. Statutory profit before tax was £4 million.

Julian said: "I'm really pleased with our progress against each of our strategic initiatives with clear signs of brand and financial recovery. The health of the brand is best demonstrated by the improving sales run-rate and a +12% pts increase in retail full-price sales mix which helped drive Group gross margin up +3.5% pts year-on-year.

The Autumn/Winter 21 season has been the first opportunity to present our improved product to consumers. Our core category of jackets drove performance, up 40 per cent year-on-year and it was encouraging to see positive trends across a number of categories, particularly in womenswear, where we saw an increase in mix of +4% pts vs the Autumn and Winter 19. We have also seen our short order product begin to show promising traction with teen consumers.

"Illustrating our long-term commitment to the high street, our new Oxford Street flagship store launched in November, showing the best representation of our style choices and how we plan to engage with our customers, wholesale partners and the influencer community. It has been pleasing to see early trading performance, which has exceeded expectations.

"We continue to make progress on our digital marketing strategy and reigniting consumer interest in the brand, with the number of influencers we have engaged increasing sixfold year-on-year to more than 2,000 at the end of December, supported by our increasing investment in social marketing activities and ever-improving product.

"I was also delighted to see our Carbon Disclosure Project rating increase, once again, to A-. We have consistently improved our grade over the last three years and, while there is still a lot left to do, I'm proud of the team's efforts as we strive to be the leading listed sustainable fashion brand.

"While there remains uncertainty about the impact of Covid-19 and the macro-economic environment, I am increasingly confident in the accelerating momentum of our reset and the strengthening of the brand."