The full-year financial results for fashion retailer FatFace has turned out to be a mixed bag, prompting the company to warn of price rises in the next year.
For the 52 weeks to May 28, FatFace‘s sales increased by 7.4 per cent to £220.7 million, with its ecommerce sales alone increasing by 20.6 per cent and accounting for 18.1 per cent of overall sales.
However, the UK retail chain‘s EBITDA slid by eight per cent to £33.5 million, due to an unseasonable autumn, economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit and investment in the business.
“This has been a year of investment and transition for the business as we opened new stores internationally and delivered key infrastructure projects to support future growth,” FatFace chief executive Anthony Thompson said.
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“Investment in the business combined with the dollar strengthening against the pound and the clothing sector trading through an unexpectedly warm and wet autumn 2015, adversely impacted our EBITDA.
“Nevertheless, we maintained our full price stance through the Christmas trading period and delivered sales growth in all channels across the 12-month period.”
In the full-year period, FatFace‘s physical retail footprint increased by 13 per cent to 398,000 sq ft after opening 12 new stores in the UK.
The company also invested in a new distribution centre and opened a new US dedicated website plus three physical stores along the east coast.
“As a number of major investment projects are nearing completion we are now entering a new period of expansion for the company,” Thompson said.
“We now have even greater physical and IT capacity to drive our multichannel and international ambitions and are primed for further growth in sales and EBITDA.”
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