Sosandar revenues soar 72% in H1

Sosandar has delivered a strong performance in the first half of the year, with revenues soaring 72% to £20.9m as the group benefited from its “strategy, unique product offering and increasing brand awareness”. According to the online fashion retailer, trading throughout the period has been strong, with the group welcoming its second six-month period of positive PBT, which hit £0.1m after a loss of £1.08m in H1 FY22. It said that these results, set against a “challenging” macroeconomic backdrop, “illustrates that Sosandar has a proven, agile model and continues to execute successfully in line with its stated strategy”. The number of orders on Sosandar.com rose by 43% to 347,137, of which 80,935 were new orders and 266,202 were repeat orders, while website visits were up by 25% to over 7.7 million. In total, active customers were up by 33% to 254,601. The company said its strategy to accelerate sales by identifying and fast-tracking the development of key product lines has been successful so far, with all identified lines meeting or exceeding its expectations. Across the period, every single product category was in growth, with holiday and beach wear, formal tailoring and dresses performing “exceptionally well” throughout summer and into September. The group also reaped the benefits of its key strategic partnerships with three major third-party retailers, M&S, Next and John Lewis, and has also seen “strong success” with its The Very Group partnership. More recently, the group has launched a partnership with N Brown’s JD Williams. Looking ahead, Sosandar said it expects consumers to become more selective about where they spend and “also more demanding of those brands with which they spend”. However, it is “confident” that it will “continue to benefit from its unique product offering and brand proposition that clearly differentiates it from the rest of the sector”. Ali Hall and Julie Lavington, co-CEOs, said: "Our well-planned and agile approach, together with our distinctive product range and effective communication strategy, has enabled us to deliver a significant increase in revenue, as well as a full period of profitability. This momentum has continued into the early weeks of the second half, with strong trading in October to date and tracking in line with our expectations. “The challenging and volatile macroeconomic conditions currently make the short-term future difficult to predict with any certainty and their true impact on the consumer is not yet known, however, we remain confident in our long-term strategy. We continue to invest and expand our product range, offering our customers an even greater selection of on-trend, affordable, long lasting, lifestyle appropriate clothes.” They added: “In addition, our performance with our selected third-party partners continues to go from strength to strength - and we are delighted to have signed an agreement with another highly regarded brand such as N Brown. We have a clear strategy in place and a proven ability to execute our plan. This gives the Board the confidence that the group will continue to make progress and deliver profitable growth in line with full year market expectations."