New Look pre-tax losses narrow despite fall in FY sales
During the period, New Look saw retail revenues fall by 11.5% to £555.1m, which was impacted by the store closures, while online sales held steady at £217.5m
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New Look has reported that its pre-tax losses narrowed from £87.8m to £21.7m for the year to 30 March, despite sales dropping 8.9% to £769.2m due to store closures and “tough” trading conditions.
During the period, New Look saw retail revenues fall by 11.5% to £555.1m, which was impacted by the store closures, while online sales held steady at £217.5m.
The group’s revenues from third-party platforms also fell by 7.6% to £44.7m.
According to New Look’s filing on Companies House, it had acquired a higher proportion of “broad appeal stock with longevity” in a bid to protect margins following a particularly wet spring and summer.
New Look directors wrote on Companies House: “Whilst we expect inflationary pressures to ease and an improvement to economic conditions, we are subject to high regulatory increases such as national living wage and national minimum wage which make up a large proportion of our cost base.
“We recognise that we need to continuously understand the pressure on our customers’ disposable income and continue to invest, protecting key entry price points in order to cautiously drive volume growth within our omnichannel model.”
New Look also revealed it plans to invest in a number of trials across the next year, such as store renovations, loyalty programmes, data and AI tools to ascertain which investments “return the most value and support its omnichannel model”.
