// Aspinal of London sees sales revenue fall 31% to £23.1 million, blaming store closures amid Covid
// 85% of the luxury retailer’s business is now now online as it continued to perform strongly with significant double-digit growth in ecommerce sales
Aspinal of London’s full-year accounts, for the period to last March, showed the luxury leather retailer battle through tough trading amid Covid-19, transforming itself from a physical retailer into a predominantly-online one.
Sales revenue in the year fell 31% to £23.1 million and adjusted EBITDA dropped to £3.4 million from £5.8 million however net profit rose to £4.3 million from a loss of £10.1 million in the previous year. And it saw an 8% uplift in the gross margin.
During the year, the retailer closed all of its stores except its London flagships in Regent Street, Royal Exchange, Harrods and Selfridges but also opened its first franchise store in the key Chinese market.
READ MORE: Dolce & Gabbana to regain control of beauty arm from Shiseido Group
In addition to this, Aspinal of London made cost savings and in October 2020 entered into a company voluntary arrangement that allowed it to exit those loss-making stores and negotiate turnover-based rents on its remaining locations.
The retailer said that despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the luxury sector, its business, specifically its online operations, continued to perform very strongly with significant double-digit growth in ecommerce sales.
In fact, with 85% of the business now online, that bodes well for the future and the company said that “the transformation of Aspinal into a profitable, cash generative online business has now been successfully completed”.
And it believes it’s on track “for further substantial EBITDA growth for FY 2022 based on actuals to date”.
Direct retail sales for the first six months of the new financial year tracked 29% higher than the previous year on a like-for-like basis.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
