Profits soar by 56% at online retailer Boohoo

Profits have increased by a staggering 56% to £218m at online retailer Boohoo.

The Manchester based company, which was launched in 2006 by Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, released its interim results this morning.

Revenues were up by 50% hitting the £395m mark and adjusted EBITDA was up by 43% to £39.6m.

The business is about to undergo a major reshuffle at the top with the appointment of a new chief executive but there is no sign of the success slowing down any time soon.

The company says it has a strong balance sheet with net cash of £155.6m with robust operating cash flow of £55.7m.

Meanwhile, a PrettyLittleThing warehouse move has been completed the and automation of Burnley site to drive future efficiency is on schedule

Revenues at Boohoo were just over £200m and the company has 6.7 million active customers, up 15% on prior year.

At PrettyLittleThing revenues were £168.6 million, up 132%. The company has four million active customers, up 99%.

The company oversaw the successful relocation of distribution centre to Sheffield with significant capacity that can service the brand’s growth.

Revenue at Nastygal were £17.7 million, up 111%.

Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, joint chief executives, said: “Our group results for the first half year show yet another strong performance, delivering record sales and profits.

“All of our brands performed extremely well across all territories as we continue to gain market share.

“We achieved market-leading growth in all markets, with Europe and the USA being particularly pleasing. Growth in the UK, our largest market, remains very strong.

“We successfully executed a major relocation of the distribution centre for PrettyLittleThing, which represents a key milestone as we develop a distribution network capable of generating £3 billion of net sales globally, in line with our vision to lead the fashion eCommerce market.

“This relocation was carried out with a low level of disruption to the operations of PrettyLittleThing and is a credit to the project team.

“Our extended distribution centre in Burnley, which will have a significant element of automation to drive efficiency savings, is scheduled for operational use in 2019.”

David Forbes has announced he is to step down as a non-executive director with effect from October.

David is currently the company’s senior independent director and chairs the audit committee.

The board will commence a search process for a replacement imminently.

Sara Murray, non-executive director, will step into the role of senior independent director.

Further announcements will be made on appointment of the successful candidate.

Peter Williams, non-executive chairman of Boohoo, said: “On behalf of the board, I’d like to thank David for his significant contribution to boohoo.

“David’s counsel as senior independent director during the period following the company becoming public has been invaluable. The board has benefitted from his considerable corporate and governance experience during this time.”

Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane said: “We would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks to David for his service to boohoo over the past four years. On behalf of everyone at boohoo we wish him all the best for the future.”