Superdry's losses increase

Superdry saw its losses increase significantly in the first half of the broken fiscal year. Meanwhile, the coronavirus crisis continues to weigh on the British fashion group. The start of the third quarter also appears to be anything but successful.

“Positive notes”

Co-founder and CEO Julian Dunkerton said the recently published figures hid “some huge positives”, including strong e-commerce sales and a better product mix. But this wasn’t enough to convince investors: the share lost more than 13 per cent of its value on the stock exchange today. Compared to a year ago, the share price has nearly halved.

The fashion group reported an underlying loss before tax of 10.6 million pounds (11.9 million euros) in the six months preceding 24 October, compared with a loss of 2.3 million pounds (2.6 million euros) in the same period last year. Sales fell by 23.3 per cent to 282.7 million pounds (317 million euros).

The fact that Superdry performed so poorly also has to do with the location of the stores, writes Reuters. They are mainly located in places where the pandemic is felt the most, for example, large city centres and retail sites. So even when the stores could open, the fashion retailer suffered heavily.

Uncertainty

Superdry also gave an update on the current quarter, which looks even worse due to new lockdowns in the UK and elsewhere. In the first 11 weeks of the quarter, sales fell by more than 27 per cent. Currently, 173 of the chain’s outlets are closed, accounting for 72 per cent of the full network.

Given the overall uncertainty, Superdry is not issuing forecasts on the rest of the year.