boohoo posts double-digit revenue growth

Online fashion retailer boohoo has posted double-digit growth in revenues over the last year.

The company, which operates a major distribution hub in Burnley, saw income climb 14 per cent to £1.98bn for the year ending 28 February 2022, which is a 61 per cent growth over 2020.

However, EBITDA fell across the year from £173.6m to £125.1m, which is in line with pre-pandemic figures. Profit before tax fell from £124.7m to £7.8m over the 12 months.

boohoo said the three factors behind the squeezed profits were lockdowns, a higher than anticipated rate of returned items, and logistics issues impacting competitiveness in overseas markets.

The year did include new developments which lay the foundations for future growth, including company acquisitions such as Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis, which take the group's potential to 500 million customers.

The company also invested in increased warehousing and distribution capacity, capable of supporting over £4bn of net sales, and has announced plans to open a distribution hub in the USA.

John Lyttle, Group CEO, commented: "Over the past two years, we have significantly increased market share in our core geographies of the UK and the US, and we have grown active customer numbers by 43 per cent across the group to 20 million.

"Our focus over the past two years has been on investing to build a strong platform, with the right infrastructure, supported by increased capacity to better serve our customers. In the year ahead we are focussed on optimising our operations through increasing flexibility within our supply chain, landing key efficiency projects and progressing strategic initiatives such as wholesale and our US distribution centre. This will ensure that the group is well-positioned to rebound strongly as pandemic-related headwinds ease.”