Missguided profitability dented by move into retail
Young fast-fashion brand Missguided's move into retail pushed its sales up but ate into its profitability, its latest financial accounts filed at Companies House reveal.
The Manchester-based business began life in 2008 as an online-only brand (founded by Nitin Passi) and has recently opened two flagship retail stores; the first in Westfield Stratford last November and the second at Bluewater in Kent earlier this year, which began trading after the financial year end.
The cost of setting up the stores was £1.2m and the EBITDA loss for its retail division was £2.4m during the financial year. Furthermore the business invested £4.8m in a new warehouse in Manchester.
The investment helped push group's sales up 75% to £205.8m (up from £117m) in the year to 26 March 2017. However it posted a loss of £1.39m versus profits of £239,000 in the prior year, and will not be paying a directors' dividend.
In its report the business said that e-commerce had achieved a 40% sales growth in the UK during the year while sales growth exceeded 100% in markets such as France, Germany and the US. It also revealed that its active customer base had grown from 1.9m to 2.8m during the year.
