INVESTMENT continues at ASOS’s Yorkshire operations as the clothing retailer pushed sales above £1bn for the first time.
The online giant increased revenues by 18% to £1.15bn in the year to August, although pre-tax profits increased only fractionally, to £47.5m. It is targeting as its next “staging post” global sales of £2.5bn.
“I’m pleased with these results, which show encouraging progress,” said ASOS chief executive Nick Beighton.
“We are attracting more customers with a continued expansion of our delivery proposition and mobile offerings. Customer engagement has been exceptionally strong, with increases in average order frequency, basket size and value. We now have 9.9m active customers, up 13%.
“During the year we invested £50m in our warehouse capability and our technology, and we are investing a further £80m in the new financial year.”
ASOS’s UK sales grew by 27%, to £474m, which now account for 42% of the group’s global retail sales.
A £6.3m insurance payout relating to a major fire at its central distribution centre in Barnsley in June 2014 helped it to invest in its “customer proposition, warehousing and people capabilities”.
In Barnsley, a mechanised picking solution was launched ahead of Christmas trading and in February closed in storage facility in Lister Hills, near Bradford, so that all of its bulk stock sits in its south Yorkshire warehouse. The retailer also began building an additional mezzanine level to extend storage capacity by a further one million units.
It also increased capacity at its returns processing centre in Selby during the year.
Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
