Financial headlines
- Revenue -2.4% to £1,454.7m (FY16: £1,490.6m)
- New Look Brand like-for-like sales -6.6%
- UK like-for-like sales -6.8%
- Own website sales +14.3%
- Third Party E-commerce sales +30.9%
- Adjusted EBITDA -31.8% to £155.0m (FY16: £227.2m) due to sales performance and investment in strategic initiatives
- Underlying operating profit -44.1% to £97.6m (FY16: £174.7m)
- Loss before tax of £16.6m (FY16: £34.9m1)
Operational headlines
Despite challenging market conditions across UK and Europe, we continue to make good progress across our strategic initiatives:
Brand
- Retained No. 1 position as UK Womenswear retailer for women under 35 years2,
- We also maintained our no. 2 market position in the overall UK women’s footwear market3, and gained no. 1 position for the UK’s online market in women’s footwear4.
Multichannel
- Continued strong alignment between our UK store estate and online giving us another opportunity to make a sale:
- one third of all online orders picked up from a store using Click & Collect option
- two thirds of online returns were made at a store.
- Launched Delivery Pass in November 2016, offering online customers free annual delivery for a fixed fee.
International
- Expanded China store estate to 110 stores (FY16: 85 stores), recording continued positive LFL sales performance.
- Dedicated local language transactional websites launched for France and Germany. We plan to move our UK site to this same platform during FY18.
Menswear
- Encouraging performance and market share growth5.
- Extended Menswear standalone store estate to 21 stores in addition to our existing dual gender estate.
Current Trading and Outlook
We expect the challenging retail environment in the UK to continue into FY18 and have set our plans accordingly. We are well hedged for FY18 and will continue to focus on improving our business performance and delivering our diversification strategy.
Anders Kristiansen, Chief Executive Officer, said:
“The retail environment is now more competitive than ever. We have seen a growing shift in customer mindset during the year to a ‘buy now, wear now’ mentality, which challenges us to be even faster in identifying and responding to trends, buying with more conviction and becoming ever more agile. We’ve responded by improving our buying processes, working to achieve an even faster supply chain and strengthening our Buying and Design teams to make sure we deliver a stronger product proposition.
“Our industry continues to evolve; immediacy and convenience matter more than ever before in the search for great fashion. Our customers need to be absolutely clear what we stand for and to feel inspired by what we do. We are renewing our determination to offer even more compelling lead-in entry prices across our ranges. By being faster on the latest trends and acting with added conviction, we will reduce reliance on promotions and discounting.
“We expect trading conditions for the coming year to remain challenging. We remain resolutely committed to delivering on our strategy for the benefit of all our customers and stakeholders and are confident we have the right strategy in place to do so.”
Media enquiries:
Headland
Lucy Legh
Rob Walker
Ewa Lewszyk
+44 (0)20 3805 4822
[email protected]
About New Look
New Look is an international multichannel retail brand, offering exciting, on-trend, value-fashion for women, men and teenage girls, and is the UK’s No. 1 retailer for women under 356.
Our long term business strategy comprises of initiatives spanning Brand, Multichannel, International, Product and Menswear.
We have 872 stores, comprising 592 in the UK and a further 280 globally. We also have a fast-growing e-commerce offering, serving over 120 countries worldwide, supported by convenient delivery options.
Our flexible fast-fashion business is built on an agile global supply chain with the ability to respond quickly to trends. We focus on delivering value for money and ‘newness’, with hundreds of new lines landing every week. Our ranges of apparel, footwear and accessories are designed with broad age appeal and global relevance. They are delivered by our great people in stores and support centres, who ensure we deliver great service - wherever, whenever and however customers choose to engage with us.
1Including non-recurring exceptional transaction costs of £93.4m relating to the Brait acquisition and bond refinancing
2Based on Kantar Worldpanel data Total Womenswear U35 published data 52 weeks to 12 March 2017 (by value)
3Based on Kantar Worldpanel data Total Womens Footwear published data 52 weeks to 12 March 2017 (by value)
4Based on Kantar Worldpanel data Total Online Womens Footwear published data 52 weeks to 12 March 2017 (by value)
5Based on Kantar WorldPanel published data Menswear 52 weeks to 12 March 2017 (by value). This is +0.1% compared to 52 weeks ended 13 March 2016.
non-recurring exceptional transaction costs of £93.4m relating to the Brait acquisition and bond refinancing
6Based on Kantar Worldpanel data Total Womenswear U35 published data 52 weeks to 12 March 2017 (by value)
New Look Full Year Results for the 52 Weeks to 25 March 2017