LONDON (Alliance News) - Online retailer MySale Group PLC Monday posted strong growth in revenue in its last financial year as it continued to expand its international presence, but said investing in expanding its geographical footprints weighed on profits.
In its maiden set of results as a London-listed company, MySale reported a pretax loss of AUD62.1 million for the year ended June 30, compared with a pretax profit of AUD5.8 million a year earlier, hit by higher expenses, costs of its initial public offering, and a non-cash fair value adjustment loss for the preference shares of AUD51.2 million.
The company generated gross profit of AUD60.4 million, compared with AUD54.9 million a year earlier, and said its earnings were in line with its own expectations reflecting "heavy investment in UK and US operations".
Revenue in the period rose 23% to AUD224.3 million from AUD181.9 million a year earlier, boosted by a increase in average revenue per customer. It said average revenue per active customer increased by 7.2% to AUD280 per year, while also noting that mobile sales represented 56% of group sales.
In a separate statement Monday, MySale said it has acquired a 60% stake in Danish flash-sale website Invitetobuy.dk, and has established a partnership with them for further European expansion.
The alliance with Invitetobuy follows the recent acquisition of flash sales brand Cocosa in the UK and the launch of dedicated websites in the UK and US markets.
"We are preparing the Cocosa brand for further international expansion...and [with Invitetobuy joint venture] plan to launch dedicated MySale sites in the Nordic region in the coming months. We are well positioned to leverage additional commercial opportunities with Arcadia Group and Sports Direct," said Founder and Executive Vice-Chairman Jamie Jackson in the statement.
The recently listed retailer partnered with its new investor Sports Direct International PLC in July to launch a Sports Direct offering in Australia and New Zealand. The plan is for Sports Direct to launch in Australia and New Zealand by forming an online partnership with OzSale.com.au, part of the MySale Group, giving Sports Direct immediate access to its 12 million customers.
Sports Direct, the UK's biggest sporting goods retailer by revenue, bought a 4.8% stake in MySale in June.
Mysale was launched in Australia in 2007 and has since expanded to New Zealand, Southeast Asia, the US and the UK. It is a so-called flash sales retailer - once a customer becomes an "exclusive" member, they get access to member-only fashion sales.
The company said active customers increased by almost 19% over the last year to 827,000, while its membership base increased to 12.5 million during the year ended June 30 from 8.3 million.
"We have an established position in Asia and are growing in the US and are looking to grow our position in Europe," said Jackson.
MySale shares were trading 1.6% lower Monday morning at 220.00 pence.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; rowenaharrisdoughty@alliancenews.com; @rharrisdoughty
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