Quiz update shows progress, despite recent slowdown

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 17, 2023

Womenswear retailer Quiz said Monday that unaudited group revenue for the year to the end of March shows a 17% increase and reflects increased consumer demand for its products.

The company – which specialises in dressy pieces – said revenue reached £91.7 million in the period with revenue through UK stores and concessions up 23% to £45.5 million. Meanwhile online revenue rose 12% to £29.8 million and international revenue was up 10% at £16.4 million. 

Despite the undeniably tough conditions that have persisted for some time, the company said that in the early months of the financial year its revenue growth benefited from a strong recovery in consumer demand following the removal of coronavirus-related social restrictions.  

But it hasn't been immune to the more recent slowdown and said that “consistent with many other fashion and clothing retailers, year-on-year growth subsequently moderated as inflationary pressures began to impact consumer confidence. As a result of these external headwinds and partially reflecting the strong prior year comparatives, like-for-like revenues in February and March 2023 were lower than the previous year”. 

However, group revenues in the final three months of the financial year were still “broadly consistent” with those generated in the comparable period in the pre-pandemic FY2019 year.

And gross margins for the year were in line with management expectations and consistent with those recorded in the previous year.  

This meant the business confirming that it anticipates reporting increased profitability for the period “with a profit before tax of no less than £2 million”. That’s not huge, but given the massive challenges, the company has faced in recent years, and the fact that profit was only £0.8 million a year earlier, it's an encouraging result.

Quiz also said it’s “pleased with the positive performance during the year,” but the “widely reported and significant pressures on consumer spending seen in recent months are expected to continue into the new financial year”. These external headwinds “may impact consumer demand across the group's sector over the coming months, reducing its visibility for FY2024”.

It didn't put a specific figure on what this might mean in terms of revenue and profit but CEO Tarak Ramzan said he’s still “highly confident in the group's long-term prospects”.