Superdry swings to half-year loss of £4.2m in “year of reset”

Superdry has today reported a half-year loss before tax of £4.2m for the 26 weeks to 26 October, compared to a profit of £26.4m during the same period in 2018.

Total Group revenue fell 11% to £369.1m year-on-year in what the statement describes as a “year of reset” as it addresses a number of legacy issues across the business.

Retail sales decline was moderated through the first half, with Q2 store revenue stronger than Q1 as key initiatives were implemented, with a focus on full price sales and reducing promotional activity.

Superdry saw year-on-year underlying profits fall 98.4% in the 26 weeks to October 26, 2019, coming in at just £200,000, compared to £12.9m the previous year. Superdry’s results also show a net debt position of £9.3m, compared to a cash position of £19.2m in 2018.

Founder and CEO, Julian Dunkerton, said: “At this halfway point in our financial year, I am pleased with the progress we have made to comprehensively reset Superdry. We’re doing this through our product and brand, our physical and digital retail operations and a renewed focus on the retailing basics.

“We are only eight months into a process that will take two to three years, but I have great confidence in the strength of our new executive leadership team. I am also pleased with the trajectory of performance we have seen from Q1 to Q2 and subsequently into our peak trading period, which gave us our biggest online trading day ever. However, we remain cautious about the challenging market conditions over the peak trading period.”

The Superdry statement also says the brand has seen an “encouraging early start to Q3 peak trading with strongest online Black Friday day ever,” with a substantial amount of peak trading period still to come.