Ted Baker : Report 2020-2021

14th June 2021

Ted Baker Plc

("Ted Baker", the "Group")

Preliminary Results Announcement for the 53 weeks ended 30 January 2021

Strategic progress and increasing brand strength position the business for future

success

Rachel Osborne, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"We are making good progress against our strategic transformation plan and Ted Baker is increasingly well placed to take advantage of the significant growth opportunities ahead of us. The Ted Baker brand has strengthened further, with the number of active customers growing to 1.2m by the end of the year.

"While the impact of COVID-19 is clear in our results and has amplified some of the legacy issues impacting the business, Ted Baker has responded proactively and is in a much stronger place than it was a year ago. During the period, we delivered robust cashflow generation, fixed our balance sheet, refreshed our senior leadership team and today we are upgrading our financial targets for the second time since outlining our new strategy last summer.

Additionally, we have made good progress with our sustainability strategy, Fashioning a Better Future, including the mapping of all of our factory partners within our supply chain and significantly increasing our usage of cotton from sustainable sources to 69%.

"We are a year into Ted Baker's transformation plan and continue to believe that we have the right strategy and team in place to set the business up for a stronger, more sustainable future."

	53 weeks	52 weeks
	ended	ended
	30 January	25 January	Change
	2021	2020 (restated1)
Group Revenue	£352.0m	£630.5m	(44.2)%
Underlying (Loss)/Profit Before Tax2	£(59.2)m	£4.8m	n/a
(Loss)/Profit Before Tax	£(107.7)m	£(77.6)m	38.8%
Basic EPS	(56.2)p	(153.0)p	n/a
Underlying2 EPS	(26.0)p	6.7p	n/a
Dividend3	nil	7.8p	n/a

Notes:	(1)	Details of the restatement are included in the annual report and accounts
	(2)	Before non-underlying items
	(3)	Declared and paid

Financial Summary

• This year was a 53-week year and the extra week added 2% to sales. Throughout this document, unless otherwise stated, we will compare sales and profit in the 53 weeks to January 2021 with the 52 weeks in the prior year. Due to the level of disruption in the year, we do not believe comparison on a 52-week basis would be helpful.
• Group revenue down 44.2% (down 44.1% in constant currency) to £352.0m compared to £630.5m in the prior year, driven by the ongoing impact of COVID restrictions on trading globally.
• Underlying loss before tax of £59.2m, primarily driven by lower revenue levels, and partially offset by our cost actions.
• Retail sales including eCommerce down 42.2% (down 42.1% in constant currency) to £254.3m, compared to £439.9m in the prior year.
• ECommerce sales up 22.0% (up 22.1% in constant currency) to £144.9m, compared to £118.7m in the prior year, supported by continued investment in our digital business and significant improvements to our customer journey. Growth in our directly operated eCommerce channels of 30.2%.
• Wholesale sales down 50.3% (down 48.6% in constant currency) to £85.3m, compared to £171.5m in the prior year, reflecting market pressure on our Trustees.
• Improvement in net cash of £193.8m, which exceeds the net proceeds of the equity raise and disposal of the UBB building, representing positive free cash flow generation.
• Net cash of £66.7m at 30 January 2021, well ahead of management's expectations.
• Upgrade of financial target. We now expect a net cash position at YE2023.
• Renewed Revolving Credit Facility (RCF). The Group has ongoing support from our four existing lending banks, with its facilities extended from August 2022 to November 2023, with a £90m facility until January 2022 and then £80m until November 2023, including a new set of covenants.

Operational and strategic highlights

In June 2020 we launched our three-year strategic transformation programme, Ted's Growth Formula. Our progress in executing this plan has been encouraging, despite several of the legacy issues facing the business having been amplified by COVID. Alongside a rapid and effective response to the pandemic, the foundations of our business are now fixed, and we are switching our focus to growth. Key highlights for the period include:

• Brand strength enhanced. The Ted Baker brand remains healthy, notwithstanding the impact of extensive store closures during the pandemic lockdown period. Customers have responded positively to our refreshed social media, campaign imagery and new product. NPS increased during the period and we have 1.2m active digital customers.
• Excellent cash flow management embedded into business. The business has demonstrated cashflow discipline throughout the period, with a tight grip on working capital and the implementation of a new commercial stock cycle.
• Significant cost action taken. The Group commenced a full cost review at the start of the year, which increased in scope and scale during COVID, with £31m of annualised payroll savings and £8m of negotiated rent savings during the year.
• China JV delivered strong growth in first full year of operation. Our Chinese business grew 6% during the year, despite the store closures during Q1. Growth was robust in both stores and online and we have a healthy pipeline of new stores

in the year ahead. Q1 2022 has seen growth of 262% vs. prior year and 47% growth vs. Q1 2020.

These strong foundations have supported our further progress across the three core pillars of our strategy, which are designed to deliver a structurally more profitable business with higher ROCE and higher sustainable free cash flow generation. Highlights for the full year period and following the period end include:

1. Refresh and reenergise the product and brand

• New product pyramid in place ensuring that brand identity is reflected in product while maintaining appropriate alignment with the market.
• Mad(e) in Britain capsule collection, which sits at the top of the pyramid and sets the creative tone for the collection, launched in November 2020 and was positively received.
• New Global Creative Director Anthony Cuthbertson joined in November 2020 and has hit the ground running, bringing a new energy and creative vision to Ted Baker.
• Good progress against our sustainability targets and a broader ESG programme in development, including 69% of cotton from sustainable sources and 100% of terminal product being donated to charity and avoiding landfill in the financial year.

2. Prioritise digital & asset light growth

• All our key metrics relating to eCommerce and digital improved year-on-year, including new customer acquisition, total customers, online conversion rate, social media engagement, and retention.
• Significant enhancements to our digital experience. Key initiatives delivered during the period include:
  o Major upgrade of our payment options to now include Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna and a series of local payment options.
  o Introduction of virtual appointments via Hero, with in-store colleagues o Launch of our new VIP programme DevoTED.
  o Launch of Live Chat, among the first in our peer group to introduce this feature.
  o Launch of Live Commerce
• We have signed several new high-quality product licence deals with category- leaders in recent months:
  o Building on the successful start to our Childrenswear licence, NEXT has been appointed as our new licence partner for lingerie and nightwear.
  o Baird Group has been appointed as our new licence partner for Men's Formalwear for the UK and Ireland.
  o Bedeck has been appointed as our new licence partner for bedding and towels.
• We have strengthened our territory licence division with a number of deals:

• Our strategic partnership with AFG has been enhanced, to now include a full omni-channel relationship for retail, eCommerce and wholesale for much of the MENA region. AFG has committed to open 14 new stores in the region over the coming six years. We have extended our agreement for ten years.
• MAP has been appointed our new licence partners for Indonesia.

3. Significant cost out programme

• We have made material savings across our central costs and retail store costs.

• Central and retail store costs: Annualised savings across both functions will be £31.0m per annum at a cash cost of £3.9m, ahead of previous guidance.
• Store estate: We have negotiated and delivered rent savings of £8m during the financial year. We also benefitted from £27.8m of turnover-related rent savings, reflecting the flexible nature of a large amount of our Retail space. We will be continuing our programme of rent renegotiations in the year ahead to reflect the new commercial realities.

Current Trading and Outlook

The Group is reporting Q1 revenues, for the first 12 weeks to 24 April 2021.

Q1 trading as been materially impacted by ongoing COVID restrictions, with lockdowns in place in the UK, Europe and Canada for parts of this period.

• Q1 FY22 Group revenue down 19.9% (down 17.3% in constant currency), driven by ongoing impact of COVID restrictions on trading globally.
  o eCommerce up 4.5% (up 25.9% vs. Q1 FY20), as the Group starts to take a less heavy promotional stance compared to the prior year.
  o Retail stores down 40.7% (down 73.1% vs. Q1 FY20). Globally, the Group lost 10 more trading days during the period than the prior year, with 53 days of trading during Q1 FY21 and 83 in Q1 FY20. We are encouraged with how our UK stores have performed since reopening on 12 April, albeit that revenue remains below FY20 levels. Our retail stores in metro cities and travel retail locations accounted for 36% of pre-COVID global store revenues and those stores remain materially below FY20 trading levels.
  o Wholesale and Licence down 22.4% (down 48.3% vs. Q1 FY20) reflecting cautious ordering from store-based trustees, as well as continued restrictions on store openings in Europe.
• Gross profit margin for eCommerce has increased around 250 bps, reflecting the Group reducing promotional levels.
• eCommerce performance is set against an exceptionally promotional market last year. Our promotional stance in the FY22 quarter remained in line with the market, but we have begun to move towards a more typical promotional schedule.
• Net cash was £29.6m at 24 April 2021. This positive cash position reflects continuing action to manage working capital and reduce expenditure. Revolving credit facilities of £133m remained undrawn throughout the period.

The Group is implementing a new reporting calendar, aligned to internal management reporting, Q2 will represent weeks 13-28, Q3 weeks 29-40 and Q4 weeks 41-52. This new calendar will allow greater insights around trading margin and period end cash position. The Group does not intend to report against periods outside this new calendar, which is considered an appropriate level of financial disclosure.

Following the successful execution of the five operational targets that were set for Year 1 of the transformation plan, the Group has announced six operational targets for the new financial year, on the assumption of no further major lockdowns in core territories. The targets are as follows:

• Improve Product Proposition: increase full price sales mix in H2 by 500bps
• Drive Digital Development: complete eCommerce re-platform launch
• Sustain Brand Strength: Maintain top quartile NPS score
• Grow Global Footprint: Open 10 new stores in strategic markets
• Promote ESG: Increase sustainable cotton use to at least 75%
• Continue Property Cost Reduction: Base rent saving of at least 15%, and each renegotiation to deliver at least 50% reduction in base rent

Enquiries:

Ted Baker PlcTel: [phone] Rachel Osborne, Chief Executive Officer

David Wolffe, Chief Financial Officer

Tulchan Communications	Tel: [phone]
Jonathan Sibun/Jessica Reid

Media images available for download at:

http://www.tedbakerplc.com/ted/en/mediacentre/imagelibrary

Notes to Editors

Ted Baker Plc - "No Ordinary Designer Label"

Ted Baker is a global lifestyle brand distributing across five continents through its three main distribution channels: retail (including eCommerce); wholesale; and licensing.

Ted Baker has 521 stores and concessions worldwide, comprising 182 in the UK, 99 in Europe, 136 in North America, 95 in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and 9 in Australasia.

We offer a wide range of collections including Menswear; Womenswear; Accessories; Bedding; Childrenswear; Eyewear; Footwear; Fragrance and Skinwear; Gifting and Stationery; Jewellery; Lingerie and Sleepwear; Men's Underwear and Loungewear; Luggage; Neckwear; Rugs; Suiting; Technical Accessories; Wallpaper; and Watches.