Group revenues climbed 12.9 per cent year over year at UK apparel marketer SuperGroup Plc for the fiscal ended April 25, 2015. According to a press release, Group revenue was up 12.9 per cent to £486.6 million in fiscal 2015 over £430.9 million in the previous fiscal. Of this, retail revenue surged 17.0 per cent; like-for-like sales ascended 4.8 per cent; online sales drove up 18.2 per cent, while wholesale revenue grew slower at 4.9 per cent, all when compared with fiscal 2014. Group gross margin too rose 120 basis points to 60.9 per cent in the fiscal under review from 59.7 per cent in fiscal 2014. Underlying profit before tax in fiscal 2015 grew 2.0 per cent to £63.2 million compared to £62.0 million in the earlier fiscal. Underlying basic earnings per share stood at 59.1 pence as against 58.0 pence, while it reported basic earnings per share at 56.1 pence in the reporting fiscal as against 34.0 pence in fiscal 2014. Net cash generated from operations fell steeply to £45.5 million in fiscal 2015 from £77.9 million in the last fiscal, while year-end net cash position amounted to £77.6 million compared to £86.2 million in fiscal 2014. During the fiscal, the Group acquired exclusive rights acquired to distribute Superdry products in North America. It added 82,000 sq. feet of trading space during the fiscal, thereby increasing the EU retail portfolio to 715,000 sq. feet, up 13.0 per cent over the last fiscal. 28 new international franchised and licenced stores were opened during fiscal 2015 taking the total number to 221 stores. SuperGroup said it has maintained the sales momentum achieved in the second half of the last financial year in the 10-week period of fiscal 2016. “Reflecting our continued store opening program, total retail revenues too surged 34.5 per cent year on year, with like-for-like sales growth of 20.3 per cent in the 10-week period of current fiscal,” it added. “This performance is against weak comparatives last year and falls within our lowest volume quarter,” the apparel marketer informed. “With strengthening comparatives in the balance of the year, we currently expect to deliver underlying profit in FY16 within the range of analyst expectations,” SuperGroup observed. CEO Euan Sutherland said, “Despite a challenging start in the fiscal, the business made good progress in the second half of the year by delivering healthy sales growth.” “The past year has seen substantial progress in building Superdry globally with continued expansion of our owned retail presence in Europe and the buy-back of the US licence,” Sutherland too added. “The joint venture in China with Trendy International Group, together with an extensive pipeline of new stores and continued momentum in e-commerce, provides confidence of continued long-term growth,” he noted.
