The Very Group reduced its losses in its third quarter, as it claimed it managed to deliver a “resilient performance despite market pressures”.
The online department store group pulled in a £2.1m pre-tax loss for the 39 weeks to 30 March, from an £11.7m profit the same time last year. Pre-exceptional EBITDA hit £197.4m, an increase of 3.8% year on year.
Group sales dipped 0.8% to £1.667bn, which it attributed to “ongoing tough conditions in the market”. The business insisted it had outperformed the wider market, as revenue for its UK arm nudged up 1% to £1.44bn.
Toys, gifts and beauty, which it highlighted as areas of “strategic focus” last year, grew 2.5% across the group and 4.9% at Very UK. Personal care sales surged 20.4%, toys were up 9.1% and fragrance jumped 8.7%.
Meanwhile, fashion and sports sales declined 4.9% in the period, despite strong demand for premium fashion with sales up 19.4%.
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GlobalData retail analyst Tash Van Boxel said: “Very’s difficulties in this sector outside of premium fashion may be due to consumers turning to multichannel players to shop across channels through services such as click-and-collect.”
Electricals, which still accounts for 45.8% of The Very Group sales, edged up 1.2%, while home dipped 1.7% as rainy weather dampened gardening demand.
Earlier this month, The Very Group appointed YouGov founder and former senior government minister and MP Nadhim Zahawi as its new chair.
Zahawi, who recently said he would stand down as an MP at the next general election, joined The Very Group, replacing interim chair Aidan Barclay who took the reins in February after Dirk Van den Berghe exited at the end of his contract term.
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