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Very reports fashion and sports sales growth of 17.7% during Christmas 2021

Tom Shearsmith
11 January 2022

The Very Group, owners of the digital retailer Very.co.uk, has announced retail sales grew strongly by 21.9% for the seven weeks to 24 December 2021, compared with the same period in 2019.

Very retail sales enjoyed double-digit growth across all four key product categories, with fashion and sports growing 17.7% compared with 2019.

Results were led by strong premium fashion sales, which increased by 44.6% compared with 2019. In addition, sports clothing and footwear increased by 25.5% from 2019.

Very also built on the increased customer engagement seen on its app in Christmas 2020, this year seeing an increase of 129.1% in users compared to 2019.

Overall sales at Very Group for the seven week period, including Very Finance income, grew 11.5% when compared to 2019 but declined by 3.3% year-on-year, driven by an anticipated drop in sales across homeware and electrical categories. The group noted that it expects some categories at Very.co.uk to produce less sales "following the annualisation of last year’s pandemic-driven peaks."

Henry Birch, CEO at The Very Group, said: “Very recorded outstanding double-digit growth compared with the pre-pandemic festive season in 2019, as our customers enjoyed a more ‘normal’ Christmas. They bought back into fashion, focused on wellness, got their hands on the latest consoles and doubled-down on Christmas decorations to make up for last year’s more muted celebrations.

“Our performance was supported by our strong supplier and delivery partner relationships and our highly automated fulfilment centre Skygate, which enabled us to consistently deliver for our customers throughout the period.

“While the next 12 months will no doubt bring challenges as we all continue to navigate life around COVID-19, the last two years have shown that our model, which combines multi-category digital retail with our Very Pay platform, is both highly resilient and highly relevant. We’re going into the new year with great momentum and are well-set to keep building on our success.”

The group also today announced the appointment of former Walmart Executive Vice President Dirk Van den Berghe as Non-Executive Chair. In his most recent executive roles with Walmart, which he joined in 2014, Van den Berghe was responsible for Walmart’s business in Canada, China, India and Japan.

Dirk Van den Berghe commented: “It is a privilege to become the Chair of The Very Group. The business has transformed into a digital leader in the UK and Ireland, and is ideally positioned to benefit from increasing consumer demand for both online shopping and flexible payments. I look forward to working closely with the board to deliver profitable growth over the years ahead.”

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