12th Mar 2015 08:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Online fashion retailer ASOS PLC Thursday reported strong sales growth during the second quarter of its financial year, driven by strong growth in the UK, and Chief Executive Nick Robertson also said its new pricing strategy in international markets is also showing signs of paying off.
The fast-growing retailer said revenue was up 20% at GBP298.3 million in the three months to February 28, from GBP249.0 million a year earlier, an acceleration from the first quarter that meant revenue for the first half was up 14% at GBP550.5 million.
Its UK retail sales were up 30% at GBP126.6 million in the second quarter, and up 27% at GBP231.4 million in the whole of the first half, while international sales were up 12% at GBP163.5 million, more than double the 5% growth to GBP305.1 million for the first half as a whole.
The retailer had previously been seeing its higher-margin overseas markets outperforming the UK, with international sales making up more than half of its total sales in previous years. However that figure had begun to reverse, with UK trading outperforming over the last few quarters, as the strong pound went against it, pushing up the price of its goods overseas.
Its response was to cut prices overseas generally, and to introduce so-called zonal pricing, whereby it prices differently in countries like the UK, France and Australia.
"We have also seen encouraging momentum in our international markets during the quarter at +12% (+16% on a constant currency basis) following the successful roll out of our zonal pricing capability and our planned price investments," Robertson said on Thursday.
The company added that its investments in its warehouse and IT platforms are on track, and it expect pretax profit for the current financial year to be in line with market expectations.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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