Hush reports record sales and profits in year of "significant progress"

Hush has reported sales up 23% to £58m with operating profit up by 169% to £11.4m for the year ending March 2021 as it made "significant strategic progress" despite a tumultuous trading backdrop.

The digital-first womenswear and lifestyle brand said that its e-commerce sales, through its own website and third-party partners, had made up 95% of overall sales (FY2020: 81%) and were up 43%. Customer acquisition during the period was strong with the number of new customers up by 54%, despite the forced closure of its pop-up stores and retail concessions.

Hush, which specialises in casual and loungewear, benefited from the shift to more comfortable dressing and online shopping during the pandemic and it managed to combine strong top line growth with exceptional lower marketing and retail costs to drive its strong operating profit performance.

The results mark the first year of performance since the business received investment from specialist retail backer True in March 2020; this was the first time the business had taken outside investment since it was founded by Mandy Watkins 18 years ago.

True's investment enabled the brand to make a number of significant hires to its top team. Commercial Director Kate Bartman was promoted to CEO while Sheila McKain was promoted to Chief Product Officer. Don Davis joined from ASOS as Chief Financial Officer, Peter Davies from Superdry as Chief Technology Officer and Andrew Woodward from Selfridges as Chief Marketing Officer.

CEO Bartman, commented: “We’re delighted to report a record financial performance in the year to March 2021, with strong sales and profit growth despite the impact of Covid-19 on some of our sales channels. Our business has more than trebled in size over the past four years which is a testament to the strength of our brand, our high-quality products and excellent customer engagement. With this strong momentum, as well as the exciting investments we have made in our people and business, we are very excited about our long-term growth plans.

“We’re pleased to say that our momentum has continued into the current year against a challenging retail backdrop, and with our growing and loyal customer base, exciting new collections, and the strong performance of our bricks and mortar retail channels to complement our rapidly growing digital sales, we are very well positioned as we enter the Christmas trading period."

In the first six months of the current financial year revenues are up 20% against the prior year and up 42% on a two-year basis.