Inspecs has good 2021, despite still being loss-making, 2022 starts well

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 29, 2022

British eyewear specialist Inspecs had a good year in 2021 with the firm’s annual results on Wednesday showing revenue surging 420%.

Group revenue reached $246.5 million (the company is based in the UK and listed on the London Stock Exchange, but reports in US dollars), while adjusted underlying EBITDA increased 376% to $27.6 million. Gross profit was up 465% to $115.8 million.

Yet the company remains loss-making, although the net loss was down 39% to just $5.4 million.

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The company makes eyewear under its own brands, as well as for fashion and sport-focused labels including Superdry, O’Neill, Radley, Farah, Ted Baker, Lulu Guinness, Talbot Runhof and Marc O’Polo.

Not that its growth was all organic as the firm made several major acquisitions during the year. These included EGO Eyewear in December, which distributes brands to major optical chains and is “known for its innovative and creative designs”. At the same time, it also bought BoDe Design Vertriebs, which distributes eyewear to chains and online retailers principally in the German and Austrian markets.

And in October it had purchased the trademarks, rights and licences to the British Hardy Amies brand.

But in-house development included the addition of two new own-brands  while adding a new plant in Vietnam and increasing manufacturing in China. The company said the number of eyewear units it sold globally increased 112% to 10.4 million last year.

CEO Robin Totterman said: “2021 marked another successful year for Inspecs as we continued to gain momentum through our proven vertically-integrated business model. Whilst we were not immune from the well-documented global supply chain challenges and the regional lockdowns relating to Covid-19, we were able to navigate market conditions and deliver an exceptional performance.

“Our ability to more than double our revenue, EBITDA and gross profit in the year is a reflection of our continued strategic investments in the period, coupled with organic growth. The acquisitions of BoDe, EGO Eyewear and Hardy Amies have diversified our brand portfolio and broadened the distribution of our products around the world.”

And importantly, he added that “despite the current macro-environment, we are fortunate to be operating in a resilient market and I am pleased to report that we experienced strong trading in the first three months of the FY22 fiscal year. The significant progress we are making proves that our growth strategy is the right one, and I am confident that we will continue to deliver shareholder value in the long term.”