23 Sep 2022 07:00
23 September 2022
In The Style Group plc
("In The Style", the "Company" or the "Group")
AGM Trading Update
In The Style Group plc (AIM:ITS), the disruptive and inclusive digital womenswear fashion brand, announces a trading update to coincide with its Annual General Meeting, which will take place at 9:30 a.m. this morning at The Radisson Edwardian, Free Trade Hall, Peter Street, Manchester, M2 5GP.
As has been previously communicated, the Group's focus for the year is on re-engineering the model to increase profitability and manage the cash position. We have made significant progress against several of the strategic priorities that support this:
· We successfully moved our operations to a new, larger 84,000 sq. ft. warehouse at the end of August and we are fully operational. As previously communicated, we expect efficiencies gained through the move to provide benefits to the Group's distribution costs per unit whilst providing sufficient capacity for future growth
· We successfully launched 'FITS', a collection of own-brand wardrobe staples. The level of gross order value generated on the day of launch was one of the largest of the year so far. The FITS brand will provide the Group with additional opportunities to engage with its customers and increase sales outside of the Group's traditional influencer campaign launch cycle.
· Good progress has also been made in optimising stock buys, in line with the Group's strategic focus on increasing the proportion of full price sales. It is expected that these buy quantity reductions will benefit the level of gross margin generated by the group from October 2022
· We have completed a restructuring of the Group's marketing, technology and product departments to increase operating efficiencies from October 2022.
The Group continues to manage cash carefully and, as at 21 September 2022, net cash was at £4.3 million, following investment and exceptional items of £0.6m as part of the warehouse move, in line with the Board's expectations (31 March 2022: £5.8m). The Group's invoice discounting facility remained undrawn, with £0.8m of liquidity available.
Sam Perkins, CEO of In The Style, commented: "We have made solid progress against the Group's refined long-term growth strategy outlined at our FY22 results in July. Notable highlights have included the launch of our own-brand collection called FITS to a very encouraging customer reaction, as well as several important operational milestones including the move to a more efficient and scalable warehouse.
"As has been widely reported, the trading environment is a challenging one for both consumers and retailers. The launch model and our position as a pure-play online retailer allows us to respond quickly to changing consumer behaviour, whilst not losing sight of achieving In The Style's long-term potential as one of the UK's most exciting fashion brands."
ENDS
For media enquiries:
Please contact the team at Hudson Sandler on +44 (0)20 7796 4133 or email inthestyle@hudsonsandler.com.
In The Style Group plc Via Hudson Sandler
Sam Perkins, CEO
Rich Monaghan, CFO
Liberum Capital Limited (Nomad and Broker) +44 (0)20 3100 2000
Clayton Bush
Scott Mathieson
Ed Thomas
Miquela Bezuidenhoudt
Hudson Sandler +44 (0)20 7796 4133
Alex Brennan inthestyle@hudsonsandler.com
Lucy Wollam
Ben Wilson
About In The Style
In The Style is a fast-growing digital womenswear fashion brand with an innovative social media influencer collaboration model. Founded in 2013, the brand champions inclusivity, body positivity and real beauty.
The brand's innovative and highly adaptable influencer collaboration model, which sees it work with influencers on a long-term basis to collaboratively design, develop and promote branded collections, differentiates it from competitors. In The Style currently partners with a stable of 25+ influencers, including Jac Jossa, Stacey Solomon and Perrie Sian. Together they enjoy a combined global social media reach of over 30m followers.
For more information, please visit https://corporate.inthestyle.com/about/