N Brown looks to retail partnerships as profits fall

Jacamo

Manchester-based home shopping group N Brown has announced a fall in trading profits, which it has put down to investment in its customer proposition and infrastructure.

Adjusted trading profit before tax was £80.6m for the year to March 4, 2017, down 8.7%, while full year revenues remained static at around the £900m mark.

Angela Spindler, chief executive, said the company was continuing to build on its position as an agile, online fashion retailer, adding that its performance accelerated in the second half.

She said: “A particular highlight was Ladieswear which delivered the best performance for almost a decade as we gained significant market share. Our customer satisfaction rating is also now the second highest in the sector and our online metrics remain strong, with over 75% of new customers coming to us online.

“Revenues from our Power Brands, JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo, were up 9.2%, and we successfully turned around the performance of our Traditional segment in the second half. We are also very pleased with the performance of Financial Services, driven by the increasing quality of our customer loan book.”

But Spindler also warned that the macro-economic backdrop remains challenging for retail.

“Against this backdrop we remain vigilant over our core costs and efficiencies. We are also continuing to invest in improving our capabilities and customer experience to enable future profitable growth.”

The group has just agreed a deal with Tesco for capsule collections of its plus size Simply Be and Jacamo brands to be sold through Tesco Direct and in-store at a number of Tesco locations across Eastern Europe, from May.

Tesco Direct will feature an initial 40 lines of Simply Be and 55 Jacamo lines through its dedicated clothing section.

The in-store collections will be available on a trial basis at four Tesco stores in Hungary and Slovakia, followed by further stores in Poland and the Czech Republic. The stores will hold capsule ranges of both brands, each initially consisting of around 80 lines.

Spindler called the partnership “an excellent way of further increasing awareness of our unique offer in an under-served market” and added that the company is looking for other similar opportunities to drive sales and brand awareness.

Earlier this month N Brown said that mis-sold financial services products would cost it between £22m and £24m.

N Brown is headquartered in Manchester where it designs, sources and creates its product offer, and employs over 2,600 people across the UK. Its brands include JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo.

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