Financial Updates From Major Retailers and Brands
During a time of financial challenges, uncertainty and increasing competition it is rare for us to report on positive news across the board for fashion brands and retailers. However, we are going to this week with a range of financial updates that show a more positive outlook. As an e-commerce fashion photography service, this is music to our ears as it suggests brands are making the right decisions when it comes to strategy.
We have selected a range of brands from across both luxury and fast fashion, as well as discount brands, to look in detail at their latest performance and what has contributed to this upturn in results.
An increase in sales at Burberry
We start with the luxury fashion brand Burberry, who announced revenue increases of 18% between the months of April and June when compared to the previous year. This has been put down to two main factors.
Firstly, sales in their largest market, China have seen an increase of 46% as a result of Covid restrictions starting to be reduced and shoppers returning to the stores. Other Asian markets including Japan and South Asia Pacific also saw significant increases.
Alongside this general increase in sales, has been a drive in demand for their raincoats. Sales of outerwear are up year-on-year by an impressive 36%.
Uniqlo’s parent company reports significant revenue increases
Fast Retailing Group, the owners of well-known brand Uniqlo has recently reported an increase of revenue for the nine months leading up to 31st May 2023. This 21.45% increase is linked to strong performance across all of its markets.
If we focus on Europe for a moment, the most important market for those of us working in e-commerce fashion photography in London then the revenue increases are a result of strong performance in their core range.
Pepco Group report increased sales and profitable stores
A change of focus now, to Pepco Group which owns primarily discount brands including Poundland and Pep&Co. They reported an impressive 19.3% increase in sales during Q3 and a major reason for this was put down to their new store opening programme.
If we break down those results in a little more detail, we can see that Pepco grew by 29.3% and Poundland by 7.1%. With the goal of opening 550 new stores by the end of this year, we expect these results to look even better if they follow the same strategy.
Sosander reports milestone of first yearly profit
Sosander has grown to become a well-known brand in UK fashion and yet it has faced challenges to generate a profitable year for the company. However, all this has changed as they have reported a pre-tax profit of £1.6 million for the year ending the 31st March 2023.
So how did they achieve this? With online increases growing by 22%, revenues of £42.5 million that are an increase year-on-year of 44% and a stable gross margin. One interesting factor to note here is that this growth happened despite a lot of the income coming from their wholesale service which results in a lower margin.
