Online fashion retailer Boohoo raised its revenue guidance after successfully navigating a tough Christmas for the high street, contrasting with rival ASOS, which was forced to issue a profit warning.
The owner of Nasty Gal and Pretty Little Thing said revenue rose 44% to £328.2m in the four months to 31 December, up from £228.2m a year earlier. In the UK, revenues rose 33% to £180m and US sales jumped 78% to £70.4m.
Boohoo now expects revenues for the year to 28 February to rise by between 43% to 45%, ahead of its previous guidance of 38% to 43%.
Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, joint chief executives, said: “We remain firmly focused on continuing to provide our customers with great fashion at unbeatable value. The global growth opportunity is significant and we will be addressing it in a controlled way – investing in our proposition, operations and infrastructure to capitalise on the opportunity.”
Retail shares took a pounding after rival online fashion retailer ASOS issued a profit warning before Christmas, saying there had been a significant deterioration in sales growth.
The unscheduled trading update added to fears the festive period could be catastrophic for high street retailers.
The British Retail Consortium said this month that high street retailers had witnessed their worst Christmas in a decade.
While Debenhams and Marks & Spencer reported a fall in sales amid heavy discounting on the high street, Tesco and John Lewis Partnership had a comparatively better festive trading period.
