Unseasonal weather tempered growth at clothes retailer
AN unseasonably mild autumn cooled the sales growth at Bonmarché, but the women’s clothes retailer still enjoyed solid growth in annual sales and profits.
The Wakefield-based group increased revenue by 9% to £178.6m in the year to March 28, with new stores responsible for £8.3m of the £14.3m rise. Pre-tax profits were up by more than half to £12.4m, although this increase was 10% after taking into account the impact of exceptional items in the previous year’s results.
Beth Butterwick, chief executive of Bonmarché, said: “I am satisfied with the current year’s performance, in a year of contrasts between a strong performance in the first half, supported by good weather, versus a more challenging second half of the year.
“Against this backdrop, we have continued to deliver improvements across the business and have achieved solid profit growth. The Group’s financial position is sound, and we enter the new financial year with a strong balance sheet and confidence in our ongoing growth strategy.”
The retailer has 292 stores, of which 265 are standalone Bonmarché shops. The remaining 27 outlets are concessions, including 17 in garden centres.
The first half of the year saw like-for-like sales rise 7.8% but in the second half this fell away to just 0.2%, because of the challenges of the autumn weather and competition in the sector.
“Bonmarché was not immune to the effects of the mild conditions,” said Ms Butterwick. “Our customers had less reason than normal to invest in heavier clothing such as knitwear and coats, when the product mix in stores had shifted towards these items.
“The mild autumn also resulted in increasing levels of discounting activity on the high street, progressively intensifying and culminating in widespread price reductions on Black Friday, which continued unabated in the approach to Christmas. This took the edge off December’s full price sales with many sales(including ours) beginning before Christmas, and accordingly, the impact of the January sale was reduced, leading to a difficult fourth quarter.”
