N Brown profit before tax falls 97%

N Brown has announced that its profit before tax fell 97% from £4.3m to £0.1m for the 26 weeks ended 2 September 2023.

Furthermore, the group’s revenue contracted 10.4% to £297m for H1 24 compared with £331.5m in the same period last year.

The company put this fall down to the challenging market conditions including unseasonable weather through Spring and July to August.

Alongside this, the company’s Adjusted EBITDA fell 37.3% from £27.9m last year to £17.5m this year.

However the company stated that this was in line with the board’s expectations, supported by disciplined management of areas within the business’ direct control.

Despite this the company still expects its Adjusted EBITDA for the full year to be in line with market expectations.

The company also stated that trading during the first five weeks of Q3 reflected a further improvement over the Q2 run rate.

Steve Johnson, chief executive, said: “We expected external market conditions to remain soft and for the first half of FY24 to be particularly challenging. In response, we acted decisively to adapt to the trading environment and maintain real focus and discipline in areas which we can directly control, remaining on track to deliver full year adjusted EBITDA in line with the Board’s expectations.

“Alongside this, we’re pleased with the delivery of our strategy as we position the business for medium-term growth. Our investment across JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo has led to new commercial partnerships and technology upgrades to drive performance. We have a clear set of transformational priorities in train and expect to continue to deliver further progress during the second half of the year.”