Plus-sized clothing specialist N Brown (BWNG) has delivered yet more solid growth. Like-for-like sale rose 5.5 per cent in the year, while pre-tax profit grew 2.6 per cent to £95.1m - after adjusting for fair value adjustments to financial instruments and the fact that last year's figures covered 53 weeks.
Strip out a £6.8m hit related to investment in marketing, international trading and seven new high street stores, and core UK home shopping profit rose 7.9 per cent to £109m. Much of this performance was driven by a 24 per cent rise in sales from new, predominantly younger, customers. Indeed, revenue from brands aimed at younger shoppers, such as Simply Be, grew 15 per cent to £305m. Conversely, progress slowed among brands targeted at over-50s - sales there rose just 1 per cent to £480m as customers reigned in their spending and management spent less on marketing in this category. Online sales, though, jumped 15 per cent to £424m and now generate 55 per cent of total revenue. In the US, meanwhile, revenue soared 75 per cent to £8.4m. Management sees significant potential to tap into the $35bn (£23bn) plus-sized US market.