Fashion brand expands its store portfolio
Women’s fashion brand, Sosandar, is expanding its store portfolio with a deal for two more outlets, taking its overall estate to six locations.
The brand, which originally launched as an online business, also revealed progress during the three months to December 31, 2024, and said it is on track to deliver market expectations for the year to March 31, 2025, which target revenues of £40.5m and a £1m pre-tax profit.
The company has signed two new lease agreements for its own stores, in Bath and Harrogate. The new Bath store is in SouthGate, the main shopping area of the city, in a prime position next to retailers such as Reiss and Oliver Bonas.
The Cheshire-based group already has shops in Chelmsford, Marlow and the Metrocentre, near Newcastle.
During the third quarter, the business achieved revenues of £12m, compared with £14.3m the previous year, as it continues to transition away from price promotional activity.
It reported a continued positive swing in its pre-tax profit trajectory as a result of continued prioritisation of margin enhancement and profitability ahead of revenue growth, in line with its strategic focus.
At the end of the period it had net cash of £8.3m, up frtom £7m as at November 22, 2024, allowing the group to self-fund the planned store roll-out, among other items.
The group said trading in Q3 further validated its growing omni-channel presence, with further margin growth delivered and improved customer metrics and engagement KPIs.
The group saw further quarter-on-quarter revenue growth with a substantial improvement in the period. In the lead up to Christmas the company saw strong sales of partywear as well as particularly strong sales in its core categories of knitwear and denim.
Trading with the company’s well-established third-party partners continued to be strong, with the success of the Sosandar product resulting in Sosandar being one of the top selling brands across all third-party partners including NEXT and M&S.
It said the material improvement in gross margin year on year and versus H1 FY25 (62.2%) once again reflects the planned reduction in price promotional activity and focus on driving margin and profitability, as the company continued its transition to becoming a true multi-channel retailer.
The uplift in margin is now being delivered on a sustained basis and provides the foundation from which to drive sustainable and profitable cash-generative growth over the long term towards a strategic objective of £10m profit before tax.
It said its four active stores all performed well over the period, and it continues to see sales tracking in line with expectations, with strong footfall and conversion and a demonstrable uplift in traffic to Sosandar.com in the geographical areas where the stores have opened.
Progress on the company’s licensing agreement with NEXT for a Sosandar homeware range remains on track and is expected to launch in autumn 2025.
