Oliver Bonas revenue shoots up 22% in ‘busy’ year

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Oct 25, 2018

British fashion and lifestyle chain Oliver Bonas spent 2017 opening new stores, relocating existing locations and expanding its infrastructure, and despite all this, it managed to increase EBITDA by 7.6%.

Ten of the eleven new stores opened outside London, including the brand’s first store in Wales, a second store in Northern Ireland and two further stores in Scotland, documents filed with Companies House revealed.

Additionally, it opened further warehousing and office space, launched dedicated websites in Ireland and the US and continued its investment in its in-house design teams.

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The expansion helped revenue increase by 22% to £61.1m in the year ended 31 December 2017, but the company also performed well on a like-for-like basis with growth of 11.6%. This is its fourth consecutive year of double-digit like-for-like growth, however the brand warned of a slowdown in the second half.

But directors called a fall in gross margin “disappointing”, as profitability was adversely impacted by unfavourable currency effects and the continued investment in various departments. Profit for the financial year grew slightly to £3.4m from £3.1m a year earlier.

To protect itself against more uncertainty in the UK moving forward, Oliver Bonas will try to reduce its reliance on its home market and grow overseas revenue through new international websites, stores and marketplaces. However, the brand plans to continue to expand in the UK, where it operates 72 stores, with further openings in the short term.