9th May 2019 09:43
LONDON (Alliance News) - Superdry PLC on Thursday said its annual profit is "likely" to be below market expectations as trading in the fourth quarter continued to be weak.
For the 13-week period between January 27 and April 27, Superdry's revenue dropped 4.5% to GBP187.8 million from GBP196.7 million. This makes up for an expected flat annual revenue of GBP871.7 million.
In the fourth quarter, Wholesale revenue dropped 9.3% while Ecommerce fell 3.9%. Store revenue recovered in the last three months of the year, up 2.2%.
Looking at the full-year however, Wholesale revenue rose 3.6% and Ecommerce sales were up 1.6%. Store sales fell 3.7%.
"Primarily as a result of the weak Wholesale and Ecommerce performance, along with other measures to deliver the new operational strategy, we now expect financial 2019 underlying profit before tax to be lower than the current range of market expectations," the company said.
Currently analysts forecast Superdry's adjusted pretax profit between GBP54.1 million and GBP59.4 million. A year ago the fashion retailer posted adjusted pretax profit of GBP97.0 million.
Julian Dunkerton, founder and interim chief executive officer, said: "I am very excited about being back in the business. There's a lot to do, but after five weeks, I am more confident than ever that we can restore Superdry to being the design led business with strong brand identity I know it can be."
"My first priority has been to stabilise the situation, and all of us in the business are putting all our energy into getting the product ranges right and improving the Ecommerce proposition, which are two important steps towards addressing Superdry's recent weak performance. The impact of the changes we are making will take time to come through in the numbers but I'm confident we are heading in the right direction."
Dunkerton was restored as head the fashion retailer at the beginning of April in a hostile board move. Back then, only 51.15% of shareholders approved Dunkerton's re-election as head of the company.
Dunkerton had resigned last year amid a catastrophic collapse in the company's share price following a slew of profit warnings from the firm, which led to it being demoted from the FTSE 250.
Superdry shares were trading up 2.2% at 490.80 pence each.
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