SuperGroup sees retail, wholesale and online surge

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 10, 2016

Superdry owner SuperGroup turned in an impressive set of half-year results Thursday morning with barely a flicker of bad news in the six months to October 29.

Group revenues rose 31.1% to £334m and e-commerce sales rose a storming 25%  to £215.2m. Wholesale also surged, with a 43.8% rise to £118.8m and like-for-like sales rose 12.8%. That figure was lower than the 17.2% increase of a year ago, but still looked good given the difficult trading conditions seen in the fashion sector this year.

The company said it had benefitted from its broad global spread and from the fall in the pound, with positive currency effects contributing around one-third of the revenue increase.

But, even without the currency boost, the company is clearly on a roll as the combination of very high online growth and strong retail growth means omni-channel is working in its favour, rather than e-sales denting its physical store turnover.

However, there was one less positive note: margins. The company said that the gross margin in the period is expected to decline year-on-year by around 130bps, mainly due to “relatively lower margin wholesale sales” being a larger art of the mix this period.

Given SuperGroup’s commitment to wholesale, the firm had planned for lower margins.

It also made plans for more store space during the period, having opened 12 directly-operated stores in last half year and boosting its retail space by 19%.