Strong sales growth drives Boohoo forward

Online fashion business Boohoo, which has a major distribution operation in Burnley, has revealed its performance this year has been ahead of expectations with strong revenue growth.

In a trading update for the first half it revealed that it now anticipates that results for the current financial year will be ahead of previous guidance.

Group sales growth is now expected to be between 33 per cent and 38 per cent - against previous guidance of 25 per cent to 30 per cent.

The board anticipates EBITDA margins for the financial year to remain at around 10 per cent, reflecting anticipated investments across the financial year into the three brands acquired by the group in the first half.

It said further guidance would be given when the group’s interim results are announed on September 25.

Last month the online fashion business brought renowned British brands Karen Millen and Coast out of administration in a deal worth £18.2m.

Announcing the deal, Boohoo chief executive John Lyttle said: “The acquisition of the online business of two great and renowned British brands in Karen Millen and Coast represents another milestone in the group’s growth story as it continues to invest in its scalable multi-brand platform and gain further share in the global fashion e-commerce market.”

In early 2017 the group extended its customer offering through the acquisitions of PrettyLittleThing and Nasty Gal and in March this year it acquired the MissPap brand.

As of the end of February, the Boohoo group had around 13 million active customer accounts across all its brands around the world.

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