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(Sharecast News) - Sosandar reported a return to revenue growth in the first half of its financial year on Tuedsay, supported by a strong recovery in online sales and resilient margins, with trading in line with full-year expectations.
For the six months ended 30 September, net revenue rose 15% year on year to 18.7m, while own-site revenue jumped 28% as traffic, conversion rates and order volumes increased across both new and existing customers.
Gross margins remained steady at 62.2%, reflecting the women's fashion brand's continued focus on higher-quality, full-price sales.
The AIM-traded company posted a pre-tax loss of 1.1m, compared with 0.7m a year earlier, in line with expectations and reflecting the seasonal weighting of profits to the second half.
Sosandar said profitability typically strengthens in the run-up to Christmas, helped by higher-margin autumn and winter collections and increased activity levels.
The firm reaffirmed its full-year guidance for revenue of 43.6m and profit before tax of 0.4m.
It said its strategy to reduce price-led promotions continued to be well received by customers, underpinning its strong margin performance.
It noted, however, that profitability was held back by the costs associated with its maturing physical stores and short-term disruption from a cyber incident at Marks & Spencer, one of its key partners.
No further store openings weer planned for now as Sosandar focussed on improving performance at existing sites.
The company said it was continuing to perform strongly across its third-party retail partnerships, including Next, where it remained among the top-selling brands.
In September, Sosandar launched a licensed homeware range with Next, featuring living room furniture and accessories, which had delivered "a strong initial performance in line with expectations".
Sales through the Marks & Spencer website had since resumed following the earlier disruption.
"We remain incredibly excited for what lies ahead for Sosandar as we leverage the multiple opportunities available to us to expand the brand's presence across the UK and international markets, progressing towards our goal of becoming one of the leading global womenswear brands," said joint chief executives Ali Hall and Julie Lavington in a statement.
They added that the board "reiterates its confidence in delivering market expectations for the current financial year with the foundations now in place for sustainable, profitable and cash-generative growth over the medium to long term".
At 0934 BST, shares in Sosandar were up 12.38% at 5.9p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.