Published
Dec 10, 2015
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UK's Cath Kidston sees FY sales up, loss widen

Published
Dec 10, 2015

British lifestyle retailer Cath Kidston is focusing on the Asian market and has announced its results for the full year ended March 29, 2015.

The company saw sales increase by 2.4% to £118.5m. International retail sales were up 20.2% to £55.3m, and worldwide network sales by 3.7% to £149.3m.

Cath Kidston


But EBITDA fell 36% to £16m, and losses at Cath Kidston widened from £2.5m after taxation in 2014 to £14.2m in 2015. The company said this was down to increased operating costs as it made a "substantial investment in marketing, people and infrastructure including a new distribution centre in Asia to  support future growth."

Cath Kidston opened 45 new stores in the period and now has 205 stores in total. Since the year-end, it has also acquired 27 stores in Japan from its franchise partner.

Commenting on the results, Kenny Wilson, CEO of Cath Kidston, said: “This has been a year of profound change for the company with unprecedented investment. We opened a new distribution centre in Asia and expanded our Hong Kong sourcing office. We have grown group sales despite a challenging UK consumer environment, whilst investing significantly in people, adding a new group commercial director and a general manager in Japan, together with further investments in marketing to support future growth.“

"The rise in international retail sales is evidence of the success of the strategy to further globalise the brand. We are seeing rapid growth across Asia with 123 stores at year end in the region. We have broken into the important Middle Eastern market and see a lot more opportunity in the region. The acquisition of the Japanese business is a substantial investment in our strategy to grow further in Asia, with Japan being our biggest market after the UK. I am very excited about the coming year and our plans to grow the business even further.”

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