N Brown revenue falls in Q1 but retailer remains confident

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jun 16, 2016

British retailer N Brown said group revenue fell 0.2% in the 13 weeks to 28 May 2016, with product revenue dropping by 1.6% although financial services delivered a 3.4% rise in revenue.

Trading was in line with expectations, said the company. “Product sales have been satisfactory when viewed against the challenging market backdrop. The growth achieved in Financial Services revenue was driven by the increase in new credit customers over the previous financial year,” commented Angela Spindler, CEO of N Brown.

The group owns fashion brands Simply Be and Jacamo, which were both up year-on-year driven by ongoing product improvements and new season campaigns. JD Williams delivered lightly subdued results due to a weak performance from the Fifty Plus title.

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The retailer’s secondary brands, Fashion World, Figleaves, High and Mighty and Marisota, were marginally lower year-on-year.

Revenue from the traditional segment, including brands Julipa, Ambrose Wilson, Premier Man and House of Bath, continued to decline but N Brown said “remedial actions” are now underway.

In line with market trends, menswear achieved the strongest performance with revenue up mid-single-digit. Womenswear and footwear were both down year-on-year.

Online sales penetration continued to grow in the first quarter to 67%. Revenue from online channels was up by 6%.

The retail company also trades in the US, which saw first quarter revenue grow by 25% year-on-year, or 17% on a constant currency basis. A new international website will be launched in August this year.

The full-year guidance remained unchanged.