Revenue drops 66% at Quiz

Fast fashion womenswear brand Quiz has reported a 66% drop in revenue for financial year to 31 March 2021, plunging to £39.7 million.

The retailer reports that revenues for the year were impacted by prolonged periods of stores and concessions closures, as well as detrimental impact on demand for QUIZ's trademark occasionwear as social events and activities were curtailed.

Revenues from UK stores and concessions declined 82%, reaching £10.5 million (£58.7 million in FY 2020). Online sales reached £21.6 million, a 42% drop compared to the year previous.

Despite the drop in revenues in the year, the group retained a net cash balance of £1.5m, comprising of a cash balance of £4.2m offset by a £2.7m drawdown of available bank facilities.

Last year Quiz announced plans to put its 82 UK and Ireland shops into administration before buying them back in a bid to lower rents. The move was reported at the time to cost just under 100 jobs.

Revenues from Debenhams concessions in FY 2021 amounted to £3.4 million (FY 2020: £16.5 million), with the retailer assuring it "does not anticipate that the termination of sales through Debenhams will materially impact upon its profitability or cash flows".

Tarak Ramzan, Chief Executive Officer of QUIZ commented: "With prolonged periods of store closures, the past 12 months has been a very challenging period for many in the UK retail sector, and QUIZ has not been immune to this. However, against this difficult trading backdrop, the Group has taken proactive actions to preserve cash and realign our store estate for the future retail landscape.

"In addition, we remain confident that there is robust underlying demand from our customers for the QUIZ brand and our trademark dressy and occasionwear. We are looking forward to being able to serve customers again through our store estate and to the gradual opening up of the retail and leisure economies over the coming months, which we believe we are well placed to benefit from."