Superdry sees ‘light at end of the tunnel’ as sales growth returns

Superdry has said it can “clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel” as it returned to sales growth amid the reopening of stores across the UK.

The fashion retailer reported a 0.8% increase in revenues to £118.3 million for the three months to April 24.

However, it also revealed that total sales for the past year tumbled by 21% to £556.6 million after being weighed down by the pandemic.

The company said it was “substantially impacted” by Covid-19 disruption which resulted in store closures for large periods of the year.

Its UK stores were able to welcome customers again from April 12 after the latest stage of the Government’s road map out of lockdown restrictions.

Trade since reopening its stores has been “encouraging”, with an initial improvement in like-for-like trading.

However, the group said that EU trading remains suspended as a result of “continued restrictions”.

Superdry said it suffered an average loss of 69% of trading days during the past three months, which caused store sales to be cut by more than half against the same period last year.

Online sales jumped by 26.6% in the past quarter as it also improved its trading margins.

Julian Dunkerton, Superdry chief executive, said: “Our strengthened e-commerce presence has helped mitigate the impact from enforced closures of our stores.

“We returned to revenue growth in the fourth quarter, and our commitment to a full-price stance over the period has seen significant online margin improvement.

“The early signs following the reopening of our UK stores are encouraging, as lockdown restrictions start to lift, and we can clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“In short, we are on track with our reset of the brand and there’s a lot to look forward to.”

Shares in the company were 8.7% higher at 300p.