The Very Group profits grew over the last financial year, despite a sales dip, as “resilient top line and careful cost management” led to its percentage of operating costs coming in at the lowest the online group has ever achieved.

EBITDA grew 8.4% to £267.6m for the year ended 29 June, as pre-exceptional operating profit jumped 17.1% to £218.3m. Operating costs as a percentage of revenue decreased 0.8 percentage points to 23.2%.

While UK sales for the group nudged up 0.7%, its overall sales were down 1% to £2.13bn for the period.

The brand noted it had continued to delivery against its “strategic pillars,” including in the ongoing re-platforming to its cloud-based Skyscape platform, introducing a new app for its Ireland customers, and launching a new brand marketing campaign.

The Very Group CEO Robbie Feather said: “In a challenging environment, our results reflect a resilient retail performance that remained ahead of the UK online non-food market, as well as a continued strong Very finance performance.

“This top line resilience coupled with our continual focus on strong cost management, has driven robust earnings growth in the year.”

The results come after Very recently submitted a takeover proposal for N Brown, shortly before the Simply Be and Jacamo owner accepted a deal from a member of its founding family.

The online department store is understood to have made a preliminary approach to buy the listed ecommerce group several weeks ago.

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