Overseas expansion combined with a new handbag collection has helped fashion retailer AllSaints deliver strong growth in its financial year.
The company said total sales went up by nine per cent to £252.5 million in the year to January 30, while, earnings before exceptional items jumped 18 per cent to £28.5 million.
Its UK sales went up by 7.4 per cent to £144.3 million, while international surged 12 per cent to £108.2 million.
Digital sales also increased by a third to £47.3 million, compared to £35.6 million the year before.
In that full-year same period, AllSaints opened 23 new stores internationally, including in the US, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
The retailer also said its new Capital Collection – a women’s bag range produced in partnership with Simone – was already making a double-digit contribution to revenue in some markets.
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Chief executive William Kim said broadening its product range and opening stores in new international markets had paid off.
“Asia continues to be a massive opportunity for us,” he said.
“We recently launched the brand in Japan, which becomes our third directly-operated country in Asia, and following our highly successful launches in Korea and Taiwan we now anticipate that non-American international markets will account for around one third of our total revenue by 2020.
“Meanwhile, North America continues to be our biggest international market, and we are also thrilled with the start to our partnership in the Middle East with Majid Al Futtaim.”
In the wake of the sterling’s collapse since the EU referendum, Kim said the way AllSaints was structured helped protect it from currency fluctuations. He said US sales were used to do Asian business in US dollars and that he retailer was likely to steer away from any hefty UK price hikes following the plunge in the value of the pound.
All Saints was created in 1994 and opened its first stand-alone store in London in 1997. It was acquired by private equity firm Lion Capital in 2011 and employs around 3200 staff across 208 stores in 18 countries.
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