HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - Online fashion retailer About You continues to struggle with the difficult inflationary market environment and weak consumer sentiment. The Hanseatic company managed to continue growing in its third fiscal quarter, but slipped deeper into the red compared to the previous year. On the one hand, high costs and many discount campaigns had an impact, but also the investments in growth initiatives, as the company announced in Hamburg on Tuesday.

In the three months to the end of November, Group sales rose by 8.3 percent year-on-year to just under 555 million euros. However, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, adjusted for exceptional items, deteriorated to minus 43.1 million euros. A year ago, the figure was minus 30.5 million euros. The bottom-line loss increased to 62 million euros, compared with a loss of just under 40 million euros a year ago.

The former SDax company had to leave the index of smaller stocks in December after a massive drop in share price on the stock market. Already in the fall, About You had lowered its forecasts for the fiscal year due to the sluggish consumer sentiment; the management has now confirmed these.

In the meantime, the fashion retailer has initiated countermeasures in inventory and logistics as well as turned the cost screw in personnel planning and marketing. These steps have already borne fruit in the past quarter, it was added. Co-founder and co-chief executive Tarek Müller therefore continued to express confidence in reaching the break-even point in terms of adjusted operating profit in the coming financial year 2023/24, according to the statement./tav/tih/mis