Digital multi-brand retailer Shop Direct has posted its first profits for the first time in a decade as its digital strategy finally paid off.
Pre-tax profit was £6.6m for the 12 month period to 30th June 2013 as it enjoyed a combined sales increase in newer brands Very.co.uk and isme.com of 18 per cent.
Last year it posted a pre-tax loss of £57.5m.
Alex Baldock, CEO, said the results marked an important milestone in the journey of Shop Direct and the positive result gave the retailers a ‘solid platform‘ from which to move forward.
“We have a new level of ambition and have set out a clearly defined and disciplined strategy for the continued evolution of Shop Direct, with world class personalisation at the heart. Our attention and energy are now fully focused on delivering a great Christmas for our customers as we enter the busiest and most important trading period of the year.”
The company said 78 per cent of sales were completed online during the year- an increase of 3 per cent from last year. And it cut the number of distributed catalogues to 4m from 8.2m in 2012.
Neil Saunders, Managing Director of Conlumino, said outside of fashion, electricals has prove to be a strong area as the group benefited from a boom in tablets and other devices.
“This balanced product offering is, in our view, one of the strengths of Shop Direct inasmuch as it helps to give it destination status as a ‘digital department store‘.”
Shop Direct, which includes brands such as Littlewoods and Very.co.uk, says it expects novelty jumpers and onesies to be among this year‘s Christmas best-sellers.
