The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
LONDON, United Kingdom — Boohoo.com Plc is on a tear after the online fashion merchant's sales almost doubled last year.
Revenue for the full year climbed 97 percent, the company said in a statement Wednesday, offering investors in UK retail stocks some relief. Shares of brick-and-mortar store operators such as Next Plc and Marks & Spencer Group Plc tumbled last month after John Lewis Partnership Plc issued a profit warning. Boohoo is also heavily investing in country-specific websites and warehousing so it doesn't lose ground to Amazon.com Inc. as well as rivals Asos Plc and Zalando SE.
The outlook for Boohoo, which sells clothing under labels such as NastyGal and PrettyLittleThing, is more encouraging than consensus estimates and the company's valuation suggest, Jefferies analyst Niraj Amin wrote in a note to investors.
Shares in the Manchester, England-based retailer climbed as much as 18 percent in early London trading, the most since June last year, paring the loss so far this year to 7.2 percent after concerns over the company’s pace of reinvestment sparked a selloff. Given investor worries about the scalability and sustainability of earnings margins, the company’s forecast Wednesday of margins between 9 percent and 10 percent “should also be taken well,” Morgan Stanley analyst Andrea Ferraz wrote in a note to investors.
Boohoo has been drawing inspiration from Zara's industry-leading speed of design — and has moved even faster. After ordering a broad range of products in small quantities, more than half of which are made in the UK, the retailer requests more of the ones that sell and stops buying those that don't.
By Thomas Buckley; editors: Eric Pfanner, John J. Edwards III and John Lauerman.
In 2020, like many companies, the $50 billion yoga apparel brand created a new department to improve internal diversity and inclusion, and to create a more equitable playing field for minorities. In interviews with BoF, 14 current and former employees said things only got worse.
For fashion’s private market investors, deal-making may provide less-than-ideal returns and raise questions about the long-term value creation opportunities across parts of the fashion industry, reports The State of Fashion 2024.
A blockbuster public listing should clear the way for other brands to try their luck. That, plus LVMH results and what else to watch for in the coming week.
L Catterton, the private-equity firm with close ties to LVMH and Bernard Arnault that’s preparing to take Birkenstock public, has become an investment giant in the consumer-goods space, with stakes in companies selling everything from fashion to pet food to tacos.