N Brown’s profits hit by exceptional costs
N Brown, the owner of the JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo clothing brands, has seen its full year revenue increase by 2.5% to £887.7 million as the group benefited from its best performance in its ladieswear category in almost ten years.
However, pre-tax profit was down 23% to £55.6 million in the year to 25 February after the group incurred exceptional costs of £25.2 million, much of which related to historic financial services customer complaint redress payments.
Revenue at JD Williams rose by 12% while Simply Be and Jacomo achieved respective increases of 9.9% and 4% in the year.
Angela Spindler, chief executive of N Brown, said: “I am pleased with the progress made this year, as we continue to build on our position as an agile, online fashion retailer. Our improved trading agility is evident in the figures we are announcing today. Our performance accelerated in the second half as we demonstrated our enhanced ability to flex our product offering in-season.
“A particular highlight was ladieswear which delivered the best performance for almost a decade as we gained significant market share.
“Revenues from our Power Brands, JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo, were up 9.2%, and we successfully turned around the performance of our traditional segment in the second half.”
During the period, online accounted for 69% of sales as online revenue grew by 10% year-on-year. Mobile devices accounted for 71% of online traffic.
