''A little more confidence has been infused into
Although the damaging effect of the crisis is plain to see, with full year pre-tax profit falling 94.1% to £8.5 million, since stores re-opened sales have rebounded beyond expectations.
It's no surprise that founder
The group wants to kick the cheap image it had acquired through the dominance of value retailer
However, there is still a deep reluctance to give guidance for future performance, with worries about the direction of the economy, given the spread of new variants. The caution may also be partly due to the most recent ONS retail sales data which showed that sales volumes in June fell by 3.6% in department stores and 4.7% for clothing volumes overall. If that trend continues it could put the group in a tighter spot, in the months to come.
However,
Sports retail revenue has been resilient, declining by just 10% over the year, despite closures of stores for months at a time. Digital purchases and the pent-up demand unleashed as the shops reopened has clearly been a big boost to sales. It seems that the trend for athleisure style isn't being substituted and the build up to the Euros is likely to have helped, with plenty of young shoppers inspired to buy kit to emulate their sporting heroes.
There are also signs the company is successfully rubbing away the tarnish of questionable working conditions with praise not censure from an employment tribunal for its decision to send workers over 60 home in the early stages of the pandemic. Other high street names like
NOTES FOR EDITORS
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