Retailer N Brown remains cautious as pandemic hits profits

Retailer N Brown said it remained cautious following the relaxing of the government restrictions and the end of the furlough scheme as it revealed profits had halved during a ‘challenging year.’

The former catalogue retailer, which has experienced a significant decline in business due to the pandemic, reported a 13% drop in revenues from £837.5m to £728.8m for the year to 27 February 2021

Adjusted pre-tax profits had fallen 49.4% to £30.1m, down from £59.5m in the previous year.

During the period the Manchester group, which owns brands including Simply B, Jacamo and JD Williams, also completed a £100m equity fundraising to accelerate strategic transformation and eliminate unsecured debt alongside new extended financing facilities and moved its listing from the London Stock Exchange’s main market to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) instead.

Adjusted net debt has decreased from £497.2m to £301.1m, a drop of 39.4%.

Steve Johnson, Chief Executive, said: “In a year where we have all had to overcome multiple challenges, we have continued our transformation of the Group through a relentless focus on our five strategic brands, improving our product offering and enhancing our digital capabilities, all of which will position us better with our target customers.

“Although we remain cautious, we are beginning to see some early signs of progress.”

He continued: “Our capital raise has enabled us to strengthen our balance sheet and allows us to accelerate our investment into strategic initiatives, particularly our digital platform and brand websites. Whilst wider consumer dynamics remain uncertain as we emerge from lockdown, we have significantly transformed the shape of the business from where it was at the start of the pandemic.

“I would like to thank every single one of our colleagues for helping us make those changes at pace, whilst delivering a very high standard of service to our customers through very difficult times.”

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close