In a conference call this morning, Anders Kristiansen the CEO of New Look spoke about the Half Years results for the 26 weeks to 27 September 2014.
The fashion retailer brand‘s like for like sales are up by 6.9%, whilst E-commerce sales are also up by an astonishing 36.4%. Operational highlights show that the company‘s gross margin has been maintained.
The management team for New Look has strengthened with appointment of Paul Mason as Non-Executive Chairman and Mike Iddon as Chief Financial Officer.
International expansion programme is also progressing according to plan. New Look currently have 14 stores trading in China and on track to have 20 stores in the country by year end.
Mim turnaround is similarly developing well with sale expected to completed by the year end.
The CEO believes that New Look is in ‘A better position than they have ever been.‘
New Look has seen great revenue and profit growth despite the Indian summer weather conditions impacting sales in Q2.
Despite some improvement in consumer confidence, market conditions remain uncertain and the unseasonably warm weather in September continued through October. As a result, New Look remain cautious about the outlook for the remainder of the year. However, they are confident in the quality and design of their products and stores and believe they are well set up for the key Christmas trading period.
The Chief Executive said in today‘s conference call, that they are potentially ready to float the company; however shareholders will decide when they are truly ready for this step.
The financial highlights are displayed in the graph below:
Anders Kristiansen, Chief Executive Officer, said “We are very pleased with these results which show progress across all parts of the business. There has been a great deal of commentary about the warm weather affecting UK high street sales and we are no different, but it is testament to the agility and responsiveness of our business, and appeal of our product that we maintained our strong gross margin in the period. Our continued focus on international expansion will help us to reduce our exposure to the UK weather in the longer term. We have made good progress both internationally and in terms of developing our E-commerce proposition. We have increased our presence in China, both in store and online, expanded our Polish business, launched French and German versions of our website and continued to make improvements to our online user experience. We are continuing to deliver on our strategic goals we outlined nearly two years ago, and we are well prepared for the Christmas trading period.”
The company are very satisfied with the success of their brand new Menswear collection performance in stores, which continues to grow from strength to strength. Nonetheless Anders Kristiansen said, New Look will not be opening stand alone Menswear stores anytime soon.
