Moss Bros confident about growth prospects as LfL sales climb 5%

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
May 20, 2016

UK retailer Moss Bros said on Friday it is pleased with its overall financial performance during the first 15 weeks of 2016.

The group grew total sales for the continuing business by 3.3% in the period; while like-for-like sales climbed by 5%. Retail sales including e-commerce were up 5.1% on a like-for-like basis, while hire sales saw a 4.7% like-for-like growth.

The retailer decided not to run a mid-season sale during the period, which resulted in strong like-for-like retail gross margins. Like for like retail gross profit increased by 13.9% on last year, in cash terms.

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E-commerce sales increased by 9.7% on last year, driven by the ongoing development of the Retail and Hire websites. The e-commerce segment accounted for 10.7% of total sales in the period.

“We are pleased with our progress,” said Brian Brick, CEO. “Retail sales and margins have shown further improvement, boosted by the ongoing improvement in our customer offer and the improvement in our store and online environments.  The strength of our core offer meant that we were able to trade through the period without running a mid-season sale, which significantly enhanced gross margins in the period.”

“Hire sales continue to show improvement and e-commerce sales in the first 15 weeks of the year have also grown, reflecting our investment in systems and infrastructure.  This has been another good period of progress for Moss Bros and we remain confident about our growth prospects."