About You celebrates its 10th anniversary by breaking even

For its 10th anniversary, fashion platform About You has turned a profit: it has gone from over 140 million euros in losses to 3.2 million euros over the mark. However, the group had to wait until the fourth quarter for growth.

Growth not before 2024

As Zalando confirmed earlier today, the fashion sector is not in the best of shape. The former was only able to return to growth this quarter, after three quarters of falling sales, but its rival About You also had to wait until the final quarter to grow. Thanks to a 5.2% increase in sales in what was the group’s final quarter, sales for the full (interrupted) financial year rose by 1.6% to 1.94 billion euros.

About You complains about overstocking, bad weather and falling revenues in the sector, but says it has nevertheless gained market share. Sales remained virtually unchanged in the German-speaking DACH region, but other European markets recorded growth of 2.5%. However, the rest of Europe continued to make a negative contribution to the profit margin.

A new decade, a new start

The increase in profits is particularly striking. Thanks to efficiency gains, adjusted EBITDA was €3.2 million, a triple-digit increase of 140.2 million euros on the previous year. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 0.2%.

“After a decade of innovation and investment, this illustrates how a founder-led business model can achieve a good balance between margin expansion and growth,” boasts co-founder Tarek Müller, who is finally (just barely) out of the red after a decade.

“As we enter the 2024/2025 financial year, we are at the start of a new decade for the About You Group, and we are financially stronger than ever”, adds Hannes Wiese, co-founder and co-director of the company. This year, the company expects EBITDA to rise from 10 to 30 million euros.