19th Jun 2019 09:49
(Alliance News) - Mulberry Group PLC held its annual dividend Wednesday despite a weakening profit and revenue performance as its UK sales struggled, yet it continued to progress with its strategy to expand its growing international business.
For the 53 weeks ended March 30, the luxury leather goods maker sank to a GBP5.0 million pretax loss from a GBP6.9 million profit for the 52 weeks ended March 24, 2018. This was after revenue fell 2.0% to GBP166.3 million from GBP169.7 million the period before.
Profit performance was also hurt by a rise in operating expenses of 6.1% to GBP107.7 million from GBP101.5 million the period prior.
Adjusted pretax profit narrowed to GBP1.0 million from GBP8.0 million the year prior. This was after excluding one-off costs, including those associated with its launch of the South Korean business and the administration of House of Fraser in the UK.
"The group has delivered results in line with expectations and is making good progress in advancing its International strategy and direct to customer model whilst managing a challenging UK market," Mulberry Chief Executive Officer Thierry Andretta said.
Mulberry, in particular, emphasised that the administration of department store chain House of Fraser had "materially" affected its UK performance. UK revenue had sank 6%, with international revenue up 7%.
"We have established new subsidiaries in Japan and South Korea and introduced important digital partnerships in China," Andretta added. "International and omni-channel sales, driven by our customer centric focus, are increasing as a result."
Mulberry proposed a 5.0 pence per share full year dividend, unchanged on the year prior.
"Looking ahead, we anticipate that International and Digital sales will continue to grow whilst UK retail trading conditions are expected to remain uncertain," Andretta continued. "The group plans to invest further in its new Asian entities during this development phase, enhance its global digital platform and optimise the UK network."
Shares in Mulberry were 4.7% higher at 280.00 pence in London on Wednesday.
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