Boohoo posts sales up 106% and announces new "super-site"

Fast fashion etailer Boohoo has reported a 106% rise in quarterly group revenue to £120.1m and has increased its full-year guidance (for the financial year ending February 2018) for revenue growth from 50% to 60%. To support its growth the business has also revealed plans for a new "super-site" warehouse that will take its capacity to more than £2bn of sales.

In the three months ending 31 May the business achieved a like-for-like revenue growth of 78% and a gross margin of 54.2%. Its flagship site Boohoo achieved revenue growth of 48% taking sales to £86.4m while recent acquisitions PrettyLittleThing and Nasty Gal achieved revenues of £30.7m and £2.9m respectively.

"Our performance in the first quarter has been very encouraging across all brands and geographic regions. While it is early in the financial year, boohoo continues to perform well and PrettyLittleThing delivered exceptionally strong revenue growth in the first quarter as it continues to expand its young female customer base. Nasty Gal has made a promising start since we acquired the brand, with revenues growing strongly month-on-month, as we increased the product range," said joint chief executives Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane.

The business has also invested significantly in its warehousing capability to support its growth. A second warehouse extension at its Burnley site is under way and is expected to be complete in early 2018, adding 900,000 sq ft of storage to the existing 996,000 sq ft. This, the company says, will provide sufficient capacity for a £1bn net sales operation.

In addition it has today announced the construction of a "new automated super-site" of more than 600,000 sq ft, which will provide the business with more than £2bn of net sales capacity. The land acquisition of the new site, together with the construction, will cost around £150m over three years to FY20.

As a result, the business expects capital expenditure to be £63m this year (against previous guidance of £34m). To fund the site and to maintain a strong cash position the group separately announced today an Equity Placing to raise £50m.