Joules is on a roll as retail and wholesale both out-perform

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 6, 2017

UK fashion and lifestyle retailer Joules has had a good year. A very good year. The company said Tuesday that its revenues in the 12 months to May 28 surged 19.6% to £157m. And in its first year of being listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market its sales in constant currencies rose an almost-as-good 18.6%.

And the company said it was good news all the way last fiscal year as a strong first half turned into an equally buoyant second half with Christmas sales proving strong.

The company, which was expanding fast during the period both at home and abroad, said it is servicing a growing customer base and those customers are responding positively to both its new pieces and its core offer across its product ranges.

Retail revenue rose by around 19.4%, driven both by strong e-commerce growth and by the opening 11 new stores in the UK and Ireland. But importantly, like some other high performers at present such as Superdry owner Supergroup, wholesale was also very strong.

While some brands have cited wholesale as a problem part of their operations and have partially exited from this segment, Joules is fully committed to it. Wholesale revenues consequently rose 20.3%, or 17.6% on a constant currency basis, with strong growth in the spring/summer order book from the UK and from international wholesale customers.

There was also good news on the margin front as Joules sold more goods at full price and as it saw “a favourable product mix” in international wholesale where it has been successfully increasing the relative proportion of clothing sales.

The company didn’t give an exact profit prediction but did say that it would be “comfortably ahead” of its previous expectations. And it looks like profits for the current year could continue this trend as a “robust” wholesale order book for the autumn season both in Britain and abroad is likely to mean more good news ahead.