Asos posts £296.7m loss before tax in FY23

Asos has announced a statutory loss-before-tax of £296.7m for the year ended 3 September 2023 down from a loss before tax of £31.9m in 2022.

The performance comes as Asos revealed it anticipates a second year of falling sales, forecasting a decline of 5% to 15% in FY24.

The embattled online retailer reported an adjusted loss before tax of £70.3m for the year down from a profit of £22m in FY22. Alongside this, the company’s adjusted EBITDA dropped nearly 60% from £183.9m last year down to £124.5m.

The company also saw its revenues drop 11% to £3.5bn down from £3.9bn in the same period last year.

Despite this, the year was in line with Asos’ previous guidance and the company stated that its adjusted EBIT for the second half of the year was up 100%.

The retailer also managed to clear 84% of its £1.1bn stock carried through in the year.

In FY25 the company expects to return to growth with an EBITDA margin around pre-Covid levels.

José Antonio Ramos Calamonte, CEO, said: “FY23 was a year of good progress for ASOS in a very challenging environment and I am proud of what the business has achieved. We have reduced our stock balance by c.30%, significantly improved the core profitability of the business, strengthened our balance sheet, and refreshed our leadership team.

“Encouragingly, stock that was brought in under our new commercial model over the summer months has performed strongly and this gives us the confidence to accelerate the rollout of our new processes. As such, we are taking decisive action in FY24 to clear stock brought in under our old model while substantially improving our speed to market and investing in our brand, reminding our customers what we’re really about: fashion.”