Debenhams and other Boohoo-owned brands saw mixed results in 2021-22 year

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 14, 2022

Debenhams may no longer issue regular updates since being bought by Boohoo Group last year, but it still has to file accounts at Companies House and its latest set of figures show that it made a pre-tax loss of £11.7 million in the 13-and-a-half months to the end of February this year.

The business, which had previously been listed on the London Stock Exchange, was acquired by Boohoo in January 2021 after filing for administration.

The period covered by the accounts was clearly a tough one as its stores closed and it continued to battle the impact of Covid during lockdowns and in the post-pandemic environment.

Its sales were £56.2 million in the period globally, with the UK accounting for £52.4 million of that.

Its losses were attributed to the pandemic given the “unpredictability of customer demand, the rate of customer returns, the increase in shipping times and the cost of shipping both inbound and outbound products”.

But the group said that it remains “extremely confident in the company's future growth prospects, and as short-term demand uncertainty and material cost headwinds as a result of the pandemic unwind, the company's belief that it continues to be capable of executing its strategy aimed at leading the fashion e-commerce market remains unchanged”.

The accounts of a raft of the Boohoo-owned companies have also been analysed by Businesslive and they showed that a fall in sales outside the UK and US dented PrettyLittleThing's growth in the financial year to February 28 with revenue up only slightly to £712.2 million from £710.1 million, and pre-tax profits down from £98.7 million to £75.1 million.

Meanwhile Nasty Gal fell from a pre-tax profit of £5.8 million to a loss of £16.8 million as US revenue dropped from £71 million to £62.8 million and UK sales from £42.7 million to £31.2 million. Revenue in the rest of Europe dropped from £15.5 million to £9.4 million.

Karen Millen fared better as pre-tax profits jumped from £6.1 million to £12.1 million. UK sales rose from £27.7 million to £45.3 million and US sales from £2.4 million to £8.8 million. 

At Oasis, UK sales increased from £6.8 million to £24.8 million and from £582,000 to £3.4 million in the rest of the world. But pre-tax losses widened from £985,000 to £2.5 million. 

And in the 12 months, Warehouse revenue rose from £5.6 million to £21.3 million, but its pre-tax losses also grew from £857,000 to £2 million.