19th Jun 2015 06:20
LONDON (Alliance News) - N Brown Group PLC Friday reported growth in revenue in the first quarter of its financial year and said its guidance for the full year remains unchanged.
The online, catalogue and stores retailer said group revenue was up 2.5% in the 13 weeks to May 29, as like-for-like sales rose 1.5% and product revenue grew 4.3% but financial services revenue fell 1.9%.
N Brown, which trades under multiple brands including House of Bath, SimblyBe, Jacomo, and figleaves.com, said that its Power Brands continued to outperform the wider group performance, with the active customer file increasing 9%.
Simply Be and Jacomo both achieved mid double-digit revenue growth, driven by an improved product proposition and increased brand awareness, while Homewares saw growth of 20%.
But in JD Williams, discounting led to a flat revenue, N Brown said, while financial services was hit by the change in credit policies from May 2014.
N Brown added that growth in the current year will be more significantly weighted to the second half of the year than it was last year, with first-half pretax profit expected to be down year-on-year due to planned investments and restructuring.
"We have had an encouraging start to the year, but there remains a lot to do. We have seen double-digit growth in both Simply Be and Jacamo as the shift from Support Brands to our Power Brands continues. Although revenues were slightly down year-on-year, JD Williams continues to show signs of progress with new recruits up 27%," Chief Executive Angela Spindler said in a statement.
"Our strategy remains on track. During the quarter we continued to streamline our organisation and our processes to embed a digital-first model. This year will be more significantly H2 weighted as the planned benefits of the changes made flow through, and we become more aligned with typical retail phasing. The scale of change is significant, but we are excited about the transformation under way. Full-year guidance remains unchanged," she added.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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