ASOS annual sales approach £2bn as it posts 33% growth

ASOS achieved group revenues of £1.92bn in the 12 months to 31 August, up by 33% on the prior year, while pre-tax profit was up by 26% at £80m, according to its preliminary results released this morning.

The young fashion etailer said it had enjoyed particularly strong growth internationally with international retail sales up 47% at £1.18bn. The UK achieved revenue growth of 16% taking it to £698m.

During the year ASOS shipped almost 50m orders, up 30% year on year, and its active customer base increased by 24% with average order value up 2% and average order frequency up 5%.

Chief executive Nick Beighton hailed it a "great year" and said the business was reinvesting with an annual net sales of £4bn in its sights.

"Our international performance was excellent, as we reinvested FX tailwinds and benefitted from our continually improving customer proposition. In a competitive UK market, we achieved strong full price performance whilst further increasing market share.

ASOS CEO: Nick Beighton

"At the same time, we ramped up our investment in building the increasingly strong and differentiated ASOS proposition. Our new agile technology platform is allowing us to accelerate our pace of innovation with great benefits for our customers, including new payment methods and additional language sites to come. The investments we are making will see us add 1,000 new heads and will lay the foundations for a c.60% increase in unit capacity and c.£4 billion of net sales," he said.

Beighton added that the new financial year had shown "continuing momentum" and the "potential for our company remains huge."

Fiona Cincotta, a senior market analyst at City Index, said the business was continuing to grow "at an impressive pace" but said it was perhaps "not quickly enough to meet lofty market expectations".

"Retail sales growth of 34% has just met management's recent guidance for a figure at the top end of a 30-35% range. The company expects the momentum to continue, forecasting sales growth in the current financial year of 25-30%, which is broadly in line with what the market was expecting," she said.

"Importantly, Asos is making solid progress on its new US warehouse plans. A lease agreement has been signed and it looks like things could be up and running by as early as March," Cincotta added.