Findel has revealed “a year of good sales growth” amid its annual results, thanks to a strong performance from Express Gifts. In the year to March 30, the online retail company saw like-for-like revenues jump 5.9 per cent to £479 million, while adjusted operating profits jumped 15.4 per cent to £36 million. Pre-tax profits also saw a huge increase, coming in at £22.1 million, compared to a loss of £57.7 million last year. Its Express Gifts arm enjoyed 200,000 more active customers during the year with its clothing sales rising 14.2 per cent, alongside like-for-like revenue growth of 9.6 per cent to £285.1 million Meanwhile its Education fascia reaped the benefits of strategic pricing changes, seeing adjusted pre-tax profits rise 21 per cent to £26.8 million. Despite this revenues still dropped 6.2 per cent over the year, but slowed from a 10 per cent drop in 2017. “This has been a year of good sales growth and improved profitability through our focus on delivering great-value products to our customers across all channels,” group chief executive Phil Maudsley said. “The year has also seen significant progress against our strategic objectives and both businesses continue to transform their digital sales offering. “I am delighted to report that we have more customers shopping with Studio than ever before, that our Education business has seen a transformational shift in the last year towards online ordering, and that our improved results for FY18 were delivered without adjustment for individually significant items. “We are encouraged by the start to the new financial year from both businesses, and remain confident in the opportunities for future profitable growth.” Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette’s free daily email newsletter
Findel reported last year pre-tax profits of £22.1m versus a loss of £57.7m financial year, helped by 14.2% sales growth at Express Gifts, which saw strong performance from its clothing range, and its Education division, where strategic pricing changes contributed to a 21% increase in adjusted pre-tax profits.