SuperGroup gathers momentum on strong first-half showing

This period covered the six months ending 29 October 2016, but management provided a further update, specifically covering the 10 weeks ending 7 January 2017. This gives investors a picture of how Christmas has gone. Retail revenue rose by 21 per cent to £162m, reflecting like-for-like growth of 15 per cent, the continued new store roll out and includes the current foreign-exchange tailwind SuperGroup is enjoying as a result of sterling's depreciation.

The group also performed well on the wholesale side, following what it calls a period of "increased focus, investments and development" of this channel. It added customer accounts, as well as increased sales to existing customers and opened 29 new franchises in the period. This also explains the slight slip in gross margins to 58.8 per cent, as wholesale margins tend to be narrower. The balance is explained by the level of promotional activity prior to the migration to two new international distribution centres - which won't be repeated in the second half.

For now the group is focused on its international expansion via Europe, the US and China. In the first half it opened 67,000 sq ft of net new retail space outside of the UK. Nine new stores opened across Europe and three in the US, including a single 12,000 sq ft store in central Manhattan.

Analysts at Liberum have placed their forecasts under review, but for now the broker still expects pre-tax profit of £85.3m for the year ending April 2017, giving EPS of 80.3p, compared with £72.4m and 68.1p in FY2016.