N Brown fashions sales and profits hike

NORTH West home shopping group N Brown said its popularity with younger consumers was growing as it delivered another strong set of figures.

The Manchester company said turnover in the six months to August 29 were up 4.9% to £338.7m, but profits surged 13% to £41.8m.

Sales to younger customers in the 30 to 45 age range grew 12% to to £105m, with women’s brand Simply Be”thriving” and Jacamo, the equivalent brand for men, more than doubling ts sales.”

Chief executive Alan White said against the backdrop of the recession he was “delighted” with the results and confident the company would meet full year targets.

He said: “We are encouraged by the loyalty of our customers, as over the last six months we have recorded growth across all products ranges spanning the portfolio of brands, with particularly strong performance from our newer titles.

“The flexibility of our business model which focuses on niche customers and products, together with our international expansion plans and the recent acquisition of High & Mighty, makes us confident we will continue to deliver growth and are on track to deliver our expectations for the current financial year.”

He said the company had adopted a more conservative stance to customer recruitment and capital expenditure last year when planning for the first half of 2009, and this had paid off.

“We had to find a balance between being a bit more cautious and building on the momentum we had. I think we got it about right as we’ve been able to cut debt by £16m and increase the dividend.”

Mr White, pictured, said the Royal Mail disputes were a “pain in the neck”, but were not a massive disruption in terms of order delivery but caused delays in mail shot marketing.

Mr White said he saw good potential for the menswear brand High & Mighty, which was bought fro £1.6m out of administration last month. 

N Brown continued to see growth in online sales in the half year – up 21% to £128m. E-commerce now represents 38% of total sales, up from 33% a year ago.

Reflecting this trend, the company said it had seen good growth from Simply Be and Jacamo – two catalogues and websites offering fashionable clothing and accessories in larger sizes to a younger audience.

The company’s launch in Germany with the Simply Be brand has passed £1m in sales and is in line with expectations.

Mr White said plans were afoot for a launch with the brand in the US, possibly in the autumn of 2010.

“We have made plans for this, but not taken a firm decision. The economy is not out of the woods and with unemployment still rising we will continue to be a little cautious.”

The half-year dividend was 4.38p, up 57.6% on last year.