New Look has narrowed its pre-tax losses despite posting a near 9% fall in sales amid “tough trading conditions”.
The fashion retailer reported a pre-tax loss of £21.7m for the year to 30 March, down from an £87.8m loss the year before. Sales dropped 8.9% to £769.2m, which it attributed to “store closures and tough trading conditions”.
New Look said it purchased a higher proportion of “broad appeal stock with longevity” to help protect margins following unseasonable weather patterns in the spring and summer.
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Retail revenue plunged 11.5% to £555.1m, due to store closures during the period, while online sales were flat at £217.5m. Revenue from third-party platforms fell 7.6% to £44.7m.
New Look said: “Whilst we expect inflationary pressures to ease and an improvement to economic conditions, we are subject to high regulatory increases such as national living wage and national minimum wage which make up a large proportion of our cost base.
“We recognise that we need to continuously understand the pressure on our customers disposable income and continue to invest, protecting key entry price points in order to cautiously drive volume growth within our omnichannel model.
“We will be investing in a number of trials across the next year such as store renovations, loyalty, data and AI tools in order to ascertain which investments return the most value and support our omnichannel model.”
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