Follow us

Menu
PARTNER WITH USFREE NEWSLETTER
VISIT TheIndustry.beauty

Boohoo sales up 40% as it updates on "Agenda for Change"

Lauretta Roberts
14 January 2021

Online fast fashion giant Boohoo achieved a 40% uplift to £660.8m in the four months to 31 December as it saw growth across all brands and geographies.

The Manchester-based group, which successfully pivoted its product mix away from party wear towards loungewear and athleisure during the pandemic, said it now expected group revenue growth for the financial year to 28 February 2021 to be 36% to 38%, ahead of its previous guidance of 28% to 32%.

UK revenue was up 40% to £357.2m with the rest of Europe up 32% to £90.4m, the US up 51% to £167.7m and the rest of world up 24% to £45.5m.

The group said it had successfully integrated the Oasis and Warehouse brands, acquired at the start of the pandemic, onto its platform and was on course for finalising an extension of its UK warehousing capacity, with a new site to open in April 2021, creating up to 1,000 jobs.

Boohoo said it had put plans in place to ensure the impact of Brexit would be minimal to its business but said it did expect a "small cost headwind", which it would do its best to mitigate.

The group's strong performance came in spite of accusations of under-payment of staff within factories that supplied it in Leicester last year. As a result it launched its Agenda for Change initiative and hired retired judge Lord Leveson to to provide independent oversight of the programme.

Lord Leveson has published his first independent report into progress today and it is available to view on the Boohoo website. The group is expected to open its own state of the art manufacturing facility in Leicester later this year and has added to its board and introduced greater oversight of its supply chain.

Commenting on the progress made on Agenda for Change, co-founder and executive chairman Mahmud Kamani said: "I'm pleased to publish Sir Brian Leveson's first report today. I'm immensely proud of the speed with which our team has worked to effect change during such a challenging period for the Group, and it's encouraging to see our progress acknowledged in the report.

"We've added further independent experience to the Board and its committees in the period, and I was delighted to welcome Shaun McCabe to the Board in November. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our team for their exceptional hard work over the last few months, and to reinforce our commitment to being a leader for positive change in UK textiles manufacturing. We have lots to do still, but an exciting year lies ahead for boohoo and our multi-brand platform in 2021."

CEO John Lyttle added: "I'm delighted with the Group's performance over the peak trading period. Our team worked exceptionally hard in 2020 as we navigated the many challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the successful acquisition and integration of Oasis and Warehouse. Growth has been strong across our multi-brand platform and we have continued to grow our market share across all geographies.

"I'm pleased to be able to provide a further update on our Agenda for Change programme today, which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to transparency as we invest in our approach to sustainability and our supply chain for the benefit of all of the Group's stakeholders. The Group is in an excellent position entering 2021, which we expect to be another year of progress towards our goal of leading the fashion e-commerce market globally."

 

Free NewsletterVISIT TheIndustry.beauty
cross