Member Article

Asos eye up £1 billion sales this year

Online fashion retailer Asos says it is on target to reach £1 billion sales this year, as it tops 8.2 million customers.

The ecommerce success story reports a year-on-year sales increase 26% in the two months to the end of February.

EU sales showed the biggest signs of growth, increasing by 57%, but were impacted by currency movements in the likes of Australia and Russia.

The London-headquartered firm, with operations in Barnsley and Birmingham, clocked total revenues of £13.9 million in the two-month period.

CEO Nick Robinson said: “We have accelerated our investment in warehousing (both in the UK and Germany) and in IT, so that we will invest at least £68 million in capital expenditure in the current year (previous guidance £55m.)

“This investment will increase our sales capacity to around £2.5bn per annum, over £1 billion higher than previous guidance. Our investment in warehousing necessitated levels of dual running costs over the period which will ease from H2 2014/15.

“This investment, as well as the investment in our China start-up, will reduce our EBIT margin for the current financial year to August 312014 to around .6.5%. This year these costs will be disproportionately borne in H1, resulting in a likely H1/H2 Profit before Tax split of approximately 30%/70%.

“It has been an exceptionally busy period of activity at ASOS, with continued growth and accelerated investment, as we continue to build “The Number 1 Online Fashion Destination for 20 Somethings Globally.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .