Women‘s fashion retailer Hobbs has reported a 1.3 per cent rise in EBITDA in its full year to £15.2 million as it continues with international and multichannel growth, new figures released today reveal.
For the 52 weeks ended January 26th 2013, Hobbs saw total sales jump 11.1 per cent to £125.1 million while online sales helped drive further growth.
Now accounting for 22.1 per cent of total sales, online sales leapt 52 per cent over the period as the retailer grew its registered customer base by over 51 per cent with 30 per cent of active customers now “full engaged” within its multichannel operations.
In a bid to strengthen its product offering, the retailer introduced its ‘House Mark‘ footwear collection and refreshed over 90 per cent of its clothing, footwear and accessories ranges with completely new designs.
“We are delighted with the achievements of the team this year, with inspired development across the brand and product collections, whilst continuing to trade strongly in a challenging retail environment,” said Hobbs Chairman Iain MacRitchie.
“2012 was a year of investment for Hobbs where creativity and operational excellence across all our channels has resulted in significant developments throughout the entire business.
“We will continue to invest at a higher rate over the next three years to build on our foundation for long term growth and realise our international aspirations.
“2013 and 2014 are set to be very exciting with our strategic investments coming to fruition for our customers across channels, collections and territories.
“We believe Hobbs now has the right strategy, product offering, and experienced management team in place, to realise the brand‘s global potential.”
In the UK, Hobbs opened concept stores in Guildford and Bluewater in May while, internationally, expansion remains on track as the retailer built its multichannel offering to serve over 50 countries and is in the process of producing local content sites in Germany, Australia and the US, which will launch in AW13.
“We are hugely excited about the new launches in AW13,” explained Hobbs CEO Nicky Dulieu.
“Over 90 per cent of our clothing and footwear has been updated, with almost two thirds representing completely new designs.
“Building on this, our new ‘House Mark‘ has inspired a brand new range ‘of over 300 accessories which has already been picked up by partners in the UK & Ireland, resulting in additional space for AW13.
“We continue to enhance our multichannel offering and personalisation, with significant online and mobile developments, as well as new concept stores already opened in Guilford and Bluewater.
“This wide-ranging store improvement programme will see a third of the store base revamped in the next six months.”
