Ted Baker sales drop 50% to £51m

Ted Baker has reported a plunge in revenue as year-on-year sales dropped by 50% to £51m for the 11 weeks to 18 July, as store revenue fell by 79% to £15.8m.

In March, Ted Baker closed its stores across UK, Europe and North America due to lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

From the 18 July, 95% of of the fashion retailer's global stores had reopened. Like-for-like store sales were down 50% versus last year.

Wholesale revenue had dropped to 75% to £7.4m in the 11 weeks to 18 July. Although, Ted Baker's ecommerce sales had increased by 35% to £35.2m during this period.

Despite the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Ted Baker said it had made positive progress with its transformation plan.

Ted Baker chief executive Rachel Osborne said: “I am pleased with the early progress we have made in driving operational excellence and cost efficiencies since the launch of Ted’s Formula for Growth in June,”

“Our performance is encouraging, but I caution that it is still early days, and we have a substantial amount of work to do over the next 12 months against a backdrop of significant uncertainty in the world.

Ted Baker recently reported it would be planning to make 500 job cuts, representing a quarter of its UK workforce, across both retail and its HQ. Staff had been informed that 300 jobs will be cut in retail and a further 200 at its north London HQ the “Ugly Brown Building”.