Prettylittlething.com making a pretty penny

Lucy Watson models for PrettyLittleThing

The Manchester-based company trading as Prettylittlething.com has been catapulted into making a £3.3m pre-tax profit from a £1.3m loss following the acquisition of 66% of its share capital by fast-fashion specialist Boohoo.com.

21Three Clothing, otherwise known as Prettylittlething, has shortened its reporting period to the nine-months ended February 28, 2017, to align itself with Boohoo.com which bought the majority stake in the company on January 3.

Nevertheless, in those nine-months revenue increased to £47.7m – up 118% on the previous 12 months – while its gross margin increased to £27.1m (56.7%) against £12.1m (55.3%) in the prior year.

The company, registered on Dale Street, sells own-brand clothing shoes and accessories through the Prettylittlething.com websites to a core market of 16 to 24-year-old customers in the UK and globally.

Combining cutting-edge, aspirational design with an affordable price tag, it has grown rapidly since 2010, developing a brand identity and an international online proposition for customers and now has more than 1.3m customers.

In his strategic report, director Paul Papworth said Prettylittlething.com was now a well-established brand in the UK, Ireland, USA and Australia, selling products in upwards of 100 countries, operating through English language websites.

“The company’s strategy is to continue to develop the UK customer base, but to also grow overseas revenue and, in particular, the US, Australia and Ireland market places,” he said.

He went on: “The company enjoys the benefit of Boohoo.com plc’s distribution and customer service expertise which ensures its global customer base can be serviced from one UK site.”

The average number of staff employed increased from 76 in May, 2016, to 123 by February, 2017, and further recruitment post year end has increased the headcount to 210 employees.

UK sales in the nine-month period accounted for a whopping £37.9m of the overall turnover, while figures elsewhere were Rest of Europe £3.3m; USA £3.5m and Rest of World £3.1m.

Papworth added: “The worldwide market for internet fashion sales continues to expand as shopping preferences lean towards the convenience and price advantage afforded by internet retailers.

“We have had an encouraging start to the 2018 financial year, the outlook for the company remains positive and we believe that the continued implementation of our strategy will allow us to build on the success of 2017.”

Wages and salaries cost the company £3m and its directors were paid a total of £204,000.

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