// Ted Baker sales drop 50% to £51m
// The retailer saw in-store revenue plunge 79% to £15.8m
// Group revenue declined 55% to £60.9m
Ted Baker has reported a “resilient” growth with a particularly strong performance online, despite sales halving due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The fashion retailer saw its year-on-year sales drop by 50 per cent to £51 million for the 11 weeks to July 18.
In stores, revenues plunged 79 per cent to £15.8 million but online was ahead 35 per cent to £35.2 million, while group revenue declined 55 per cent to £60.9 million.
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Despite the effects of the Covid-19 crisis, Ted Baker said it was encouraged by the progress on its transformation plan.
The performance was better than the base-case scenario set out by the retailer in June.
Online trading remained ahead of expectations, with the group continuing to benefit from consumer behaviour shifting to online.
Ecommerce sales represented 69 per cent of total retail sales, ahead of the 19 per cent decline in the base case revenue scenario.
In March, Ted Baker closed its stores across Europe, North America and the UK due to lockdown.
As at July 18, 95 per cent of the store estate was open globally, and 75 per cent of stores have been operational for the last four weeks.
Net cash was at £56.7 million, ahead of management expectations and reflecting actions taken to maximise cash and reduce expenditure.
“I am pleased with the early progress we have made in driving operational excellence and cost efficiencies since the launch of Ted’s Formula for Growth in June,” Ted Baker chief executive Rachel Osborne said.
“Our customers are engaging with the brand and responding to our Covid-19 promotional activity, as evidenced by our resilient trading over the past 11 weeks.
“Our performance is encouraging, but I caution that it is still early days, and we have a substantial amount of work to do over the next 12 months against a backdrop of significant uncertainty in the world.
“However, the brand has an exciting future, and I am looking forward with cautious optimism that the initiatives currently underway across all areas of the business will bear fruit over the next 12 months.”
Ted Baker recently revealed that it is planning to cut 500 jobs across both retail and its head office in an effort to save £6 million by the end of the year.
Some 200 jobs will go at the Ugly Brown Building, its London head office, with the rest from its 46 shops and dozens of store concessions.
Ted Baker has seen its shares drop by a colossal 89 per cent to 76p in the past year, valuing the company at £140 million.
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