LONDON (Alliance News) - FTSE 250-listed clothing retailer SuperGroup PLC on Thursday said its pretax profit rose in its 2015 financial year on the back of robust retail sales over the course of the year and said it has signed a joint venture deal to enter the Chinese market as sales in the first quarter rose sharply against weak comparables.
The Superdry brand owner said its pretax profit for the year to April 25 was GBP59.5 million, up from GBP45.2 million last year when the group was hit by GBP16.8 million in exceptional charges. Revenue increased to GBP486.6 million from GBP430.9 million, and the group's gross margin improved to 60.9% from 59.7%.
Retail revenue in the year rose by 17%, while like-for-like sales growth in the period was 4.8%. Within the retail sales segment, the contribution from online sales increased to 18.2%. Wholesale revenue for the company was up by 4.9%.
Over the course of the year, SuperGroup added a further 82,000 square feet of trading space, increasing its retail portfolio in Europe to 715,000 square foot, a 13% rise. It opened 28 new international franchised and licence stores over the course of the, increasing its total estate to 221.
The group added it has signed a joint venture deal with Trendy International Group for the Chinese market, which will allow it to enter China in a "controlled and managed way".
SuperGroup said it has maintained its second half sales momentum in the first quarter of its current financial year, with retail revenue up by 35% in the first 10 weeks and rising by 20% on a like-for-like basis. The retailer did note that this performance was against weak year-earlier comparables, but it does expects its 2016 underlying profit to be in line with market forecasts.
"Despite a challenging start to 2015, the business made good progress in the second half of the year, delivering healthy sales growth, developing our infrastructure and continuing to advance our product range as we incorporate extensive customer insight into our design process," said Euan Sutherland, SuperGroup's chief executive.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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