N Brown turns to annual loss amid revenue fall and impairment cost

(Alliance News) - N Brown Group PLC on Tuesday reported a swing to a loss amid higher impairment costs and lower revenue.

N Brown shares fell 15% to 23.45 pence each on Tuesday morning in London.

The Manchester-based clothing and footwear digital retailer said in the financial year that ended on March 4, it swung to a pretax loss of GBP71.1 million from a profit of GBP19.2 million.

Revenue fell 5.3% to GBP677.5 million from GBP715.7 million.

Impairment loss on customer receivables widened 30% to GBP122.3 million from GBP94.4 million. Further, it incurred an impairment of GBP53.0 million in financial 2023, compared to none a year prior.

The company kept dividends suspended, as has been the case since financial year 2021 when it noted an impact from the Covid pandemic.

Looking ahead, N Brown said that the weaker product revenue it has seen in the last quarter of financial 2023 has continued into the first quarter of the new financial year. The company reported continued issues with high inflation and low consumer confidence.

It expects financial services revenue to fall by around 4.3%. In financial 2023, it was down 2.4% to GBP244.1 million from GBP250.1 million.

It added: "We expect to drive product margin improvements through mix by moving further into clothing, and a greater proportion of full price sales, supported by optimised pricing strategies which also utilise our improving data usage. We are well hedged against our US dollar purchases for FY24."

By Tom Budszus, Alliance News reporter

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