Superdry expands sports range

The first store dedicated solely to sport opened in Cape Town during the period and a dozen 'shop-in-shop' implants have been added to own-brand stores. Chief executive Euan Sutherland said the sport line is split between products for customers looking for comfort and style, and those looking for more technical gear. The latter will be put to the test later this year when Superdry Sport supplies the kit for the UK team competing in the Invictus Games.

Sales improved at the group level, but these results demonstrate a shift in how consumers are shopping. Retail saw like-for-like sales growth of 6.3 per cent to £243m, but online revenues increased by nearly a third thanks to marketing campaigns focused specifically on customers shopping digitally. Revenue from stores rose 7.6 per cent year on year to £182m, with average retail selling space increasing by 15 per cent to around 1.1m square feet.

Wholesale continues to be a growing channel too, with revenue up by more than a third to £160m. But the success of this division weighed on gross margins, which contracted from 58.8 per cent to 57.1 per cent during the period. Selling via a third party is lower margin than selling directly to the customer. But chief financial officer Nick Wharton isn't concerned by this margin squeeze as he says it simply reflects "a change in how people are shopping". During the all-important Christmas trading period (10 weeks to 6 January 2018) group revenue was 12.6 per cent higher than the previous year at £216m, with retail like-for-like growth of 4.7 per cent. 

Analysts at Stifel expect pre-tax profits of £97.7m in the year to April 2018, giving EPS of 96.7p, compared with £87m and 84p in FY2017.