Superdry boss Julian Dunkerton admitted the retailer is facing a “difficult period” ahead as it posted widening losses and revealed CFO Shaun Wills had quit the business.
The embattled fashion retailer’s sales plunged 23% to £219.8m in the half to 28 October, which it blamed on a challenging retail market, unseasonable weather and underperformance of its wholesale segment.
However, it had seen some “more encouraging trends” during the recent cold snap, with sales falling at a slower rate of 13.7% in the 12 weeks to 20 January.
A difficult period for Superdry
Softer trading over the half resulted in Superdry’s adjusted pre-tax loss widening from £13.6m to £25.3m.
On a statutory basis, it swung to a pre-tax profit of £3.3m, up from a £17.7m loss the year before, thanks the sale of its intellectual property in the APAC region.
It also emerged that finance boss Shaun Wills will step down from his post at the end of March after three years.
He will be replaced by McColls CFO Giles David, who will join the business on an interim basis at the end of the month and will later join the board in April.
Founder and chief executive Julian Dunkerton said: “This has clearly been a difficult period for Superdry.
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“A challenging consumer retail market, set against a backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty and some remarkably unseasonal weather conditions have all combined to weaken the financial performance of the group.
He added: “These macro and external factors have been further exacerbated by the underperformance of our wholesale segment.
“Whilst, to some extent, this was expected due to the decision to exit our US operations and the sale of the brand rights in non-core territories, the segment continues to prove challenging.”
It was revealed last week that Superdry had drafted in advisers at PwC to review its funding options following its pre-Christmas profit-warning.
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