Sosandar has bounced into the black in its second half as the online fashion brand prepares to open its first stores.
The fashion brand expects to pull in a £1.1m profit in the six months ended 31 March, up from the £1.3m loss it made in its first half. The resulting expected £200,000 loss for the year against £46.3m in sales is broadly in line with market expectations.
Sosandar attributed its upswing in profits to introducing a more targetted approach to price promotional activity ahead of its store openings, which it said resulted in less frequent and less deep discounts. Gross margin improved to 57.6% from 56.1% last year.
The retailer said April trading had also been “strong with continued improvement in profitability driven in particular by gross margin”.
It said substantial progress had been made towards opening its first stores, with several shops identified in top tier locations.
Despite this, Sosandar insisted its website remained the “bedrock” of its brand, and that this channel had been strengthened with the launch of its app in July.
The group said the planned roll out of its multichannel model was designed to deliver profitable growth and accelerate delivery of its medium-term target of over £100m sales and a 10% margin.
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“With over 60% of the +£60bn per annum clothing market in the UK being transacted in physical stores, we remain confident that the opportunity available to multi-channel retailers far exceeds that of an online pureplay business,” it said.
Sosandar co-CEOs Ali Hall and Julie Lavington added: “We enter the new financial year well placed, with a strong cash position in order to execute the next stage of our growth strategy.
“We fully expect that we will deliver more milestones in FY25 as we open our first physical retail stores and continue to take the Sosandar brand to more customers across the UK and worldwide.”
In January, Sosandar reported it had enjoyed its best-ever Christmas trading period after sales jumped 23% over the golden quarter.
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