Crew Clothing sales and profits rose ahead of Covid

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 21, 2020

Crew Clothing has filed its annual results to the end of 2019 and the figures show a business with rising sales and profits, although comparisons aren’t as straightforward as usual because it extended its financial year. That meant the latest results cover 61 weeks rather than the usual 52.

So, in the extended ‘year’ to December 29 2019, it saw turnover of £82.8 million, compared to £61.2 million in the 12-month period to the end of October 2018. 

And its adjusted EBITDA was £13 million, up 35% compared to £5.1 million. Net profit was £8.79 million, up sharply from £2.78 million a year earlier, “reflecting payback from prior period investments”. 

Despite the nine additional weeks, it's clear that the latest financial year saw increases overall compared to the previous one. 

During the period, the company continued to invest in its online platform and store portfolio and on a comparable 12-month basis saw 10% growth here.

It was helped by the fact that it “maintained a disciplined approach to promotions, which benefited our margins and working capital and further maintained the integrity and strength of the brand”.

The company said that despite the widespread difficulties across the Uk retail sector, its performance was indicative of “the resilience of a certain segment of UK consumers and their continued willingness to buy products which offer exceptional quality at reasonable price points”.

And it added that although it’s “careful not to deviate too far from our core, we believe the Crew Clothing brand appeals to an increasingly broad core customer base and is capable of further expansion”. 

As far as trading since the financial year ended is concerned, the company didn’t give any figures but said that it’s confident “and encouraged by the resilience and early trading performance of its retail stores, continued online growth and [its] third-party partnerships post-lockdown, all of which have performed ahead of internal forecasts”.

The company responded to this year’s lockdowns with a number of initiatives. They included furloughs, some salary cuts for staff still working, and some redundancies in both stores and its HQ. It also spoke to landlords about new rent deals, cancelled and “rebalanced” some orders and held a certain amount of stock over until 2021.