House of Fraser has delivered mostly positive results in its full-year report today, including a skyrocketing of pre-tax profits from £1.3 million to £3.4 million.
The department store chain also recorded sales of £1.3 billion for the 52 weeks to January 28, which was in line with last year, but like-for-like sales growth grew by 0.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, the retailer‘s profit after tax for the year stood at £14.7 million, a marked improvement to last year‘s loss of £18.4 million.
There was also continued growth of House of Fraser‘s online business, with 16.1 per cent like-for-like sales growth in the year. Online sales now represent 21.8 per cent of total sales.
On the other hand, the retailer‘s EBITDA of £63.6 million is a decrease of £2.7 million on the previous year due to a reduction in financial services income of £3.9 million in the first half of the year.
While there was growth across all of House of Fraser‘s store categories, beauty was the strongest with sales increasing 4.1 per cent in the full-year period.
However, womenswear sales declined by 0.6 per cent.
House of Fraser also completed five store refurbishments during the year at London Victoria, Chichester, Shrewsbury, Darlington and Belfast, and continued to develop its new anchor stores at Rushden Lakes in Northamptonshire and Chester Northgate.
READ MORE: Champagne bars, revamped website & less fashion labels: House of Fraser’s new 5-year vision
House of Fraser chief financial officer Colin Elliot said the company was “pleased” with the results “despite continued challenging trading conditions” across the retail industry.
“To deliver such a strong set of results for the year is a testimony to the resilience of our business model, and credit to the expertise and dedication of the new senior management team and our thousands of colleagues across the group who strive to exceed our customers‘ expectations every day,” he said.
In March, House of Fraser revealed the details of its new five-year strategy which included plans to drop 30 womenswear brands, launch in-store champagne bars and yoga studios, refocus its customer base, and invest £25 million to revamp its website and ecommerce platform.
House of Fraser executive chairman Frank Slevin said because of the constantly-changing retail environment, there was a need to be innovative.
“The strengthened leadership team have meticulously reviewed every part of our business and have set out a clear vision for the future direction of the business,” he said.
“It is important that House of Fraser leads in providing the space and experience that attracts our customers to come and spend time in our stores, to make shopping with House of Fraser a lifestyle-led experience.
“With great teamwork, newly refurbished stores and a greatly improved web platform, I am confident that the group has the solid foundations to deliver long term growth and sustainable profitability over the coming years.”
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