The House of Boohoo: Impact of PrettyLittleThing and others on fast-fashion giant’s mounting losses revealed
By virtue of being a household name, publicly-listed group and controversial brand, Boohoo is never far from the headlines.
Its finances, business and ethical practices have been a matter of public debate on a regular basis since it was founded in Manchester almost 20 years ago.
Since its London IPO in 2014, group results have also been poured over by investors and analysts and the Boohoo name has acted as a bellwether for the UK fast fashion industry as a whole.
But while the group’s overall finances are made public on the London Stock Exchange, those of its individual brands are kept from the public eye.
The results for the likes of PrettyLittleThing, Burton and Oasis are not included in Boohoo’s updates to the market and instead are only revealed in accounts filed with Companies House once a year.
After missing the deadline of November 30, 2023, the accounts for nine of Boohoo’s brands have only now been made publicly available – shedding new light on the group’s performance as a whole.
However, the results for Debenhams and NastyGal are still to be filed with Companies House and are coming up to two months overdue.
The accounts for those brands which are available cover the 12 months to the end of February 2023.
For the same financial year, Boohoo reported a pre-tax loss of £90.7m compared to a profit of £7.8m in the prior year and £92.2m in the period before that.
Its revenue also slipped from £1.98bn to £1.76bn over the year although that figure was still ahead of the £1.23bn it reported in 2020.
Its latest set of full-year accounts are due to be published on the London Stock Exchange in May.
For the first half of its current financial year, Boohoo’s revenue fell from £882.4m to £729.1m while its pre-tax losses widened from £15.2m to £26.4m.
Of the nine brands, one returned to making a pre-tax profit, one’s profits increased while three saw their earnings cut – with one total falling by more than £50m.
Three other brands saw their pre-tax losses cut but a further company’s losses widened during the year.
Below, City A.M. has taken a deep dive into the latest fortunes of PrettyLittleThing, Wallis, Warehouse, Oasis, Burton, Karen Miller, Coast, Dorothy Perkins and MissPap to reveal just how they have been performing since they were snapped up by the fast-fashion giant.
PrettyLittleThing
PrettyLittleThing (PLT) was established in 2012 by brothers Umar and Adam Kamani, the sons of Boohoo co-founder Mahmud. A majority stake in the brand was later bought by the fast-fashion giant at the start of 2017.
For the year to February 28, 2023, PrettyLittleThing’s revenue was cut from £712.2m to £634.1m while its pre-tax profits were slashed from £75 to £22m.
The company said its profits had been impacted by £8.3m of exceptional costs related to the £125m project to introduce automation to its Sheffield warehouse.
In the UK, its sales fell from £391.7m to £362.2m and from £74.3m to £62.7m in the rest of Europe.
Its USA revenue also decreased from £210m to £177.5m and its sales fell from £36m to £31.5m in the rest of the world.
The average number of people directly employed by PLT during the year went from 455 to 445.
Burton
Burton was founded by Sir Montague Maurice Burton in Chesterfield in 1903. It was acquired by Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group in 2002.
It entered administration in 2020 and was acquired by Boohoo alongside Dorothy Perkins and Wallis for £25m. All its stores were closed in 2021.
For the year to February 28, 2023, Burton’s revenue was slashed from £31.3m to £16.6m and it made a pre-tax loss of £1.7m, compared to a loss of £3.3m in the prior 12 months.
In the UK, Burton’s revenue fell from £29.4m to £14m but it rose from £563,000 to £2m in the rest of Europe. However, its sales in the rest of the world were cut from £1.3m to £583,000.
The average number of people directly employed by Burton during the year fell from 41 to 24.
Karen Millen
Karen Millen was founded in 1981 and has been owned by Boohoo since 2019 when it, and its sister company Coast, were bought out of administration for £18m. The brand became online only and its standalone stores were closed.
For the year to February 28, 2023, Karen Millen’s revenue increased from £67.5m to £82.1m while its pre-tax profits fell from £12.1m to £8.3m.
In the UK, its sales rose from £45.3m to £51.6m, from £8.8m to £14.5m in the USA, from £8.6m to £10.3m in the rest of Europe and from £4.6m to £5.6m in the rest of the world.
The average number of people directly employed by Karen Millen during the year increased from 72 to 84.
Wallis
Wallis was founded in 1923 and was part of the Arcadia Group before its collapse into administration in 2020.
For the year to February 28, 2023, revenue at Wallis decreased slightly from £27.8m to £27m while it went from making a pre-tax loss of £4m to a profit of £1.2m.
In the UK, its revenue fell from £26.1m to 23.4m but its sales rose from £1.6m to £3.5m in the rest of the world.
During the year, the average number of people directly employed by Wallis fell by one to 33.
MissPap
Boohoo acquired MissPap in March 2019 after it had been founded in 2015 by Ashley Ali.
For the year to February 28, 2023, MissPap’s revenue increased from £12.7m to £16.1m and its pre-tax losses were cut from £2.9m to £155,000.
In the UK, its revenue rose from £10.8m to £12.5m, from £611,000 in the rest of Europe and from £1.2m to £1.7m in the rest of the world.
The average number of people directly employed by MissPap during the year fell from 25 to 16.
Warehouse
Warehouse was founded in 1976 and entered administration in 2020. Its brand, assets and stock were acquired by Boohoo at the same time as the Oasis chain.
For the year to February 28, 2023, Warehouse’s total revenue increased from £21.3m to £22m while its pre-tax losses were cut from £2m to £991,000.
In the UK, its revenue fell from £18.6m to £17.2m but rose from £1.4m to £3.4m in the rest of Europe and from £1.1m to £1.3m in the rest of the world.
During the year the average number of people directly employed by Warehouse decreased from 40 to 27.
Oasis
Oasis was founded in 1991 and was acquired by Boohoo out of administration in June 2020.
For the year to February 28, 2023, revenue at Oasis fell from £28.2m to £26.6m and its pre-tax losses widened from £2.5m to £3.1m.
In the UK, its sales fell from £24.8m to £21.9m but they rose from £2.3m to £3.4m in the rest of Europe and from £1m to £1.3m in the rest of the world.
The average number of people employed directly by Oasis during the year fell from 69 to 59.
Dorothy Perkins
Dorothy Perkins can trace its roots back to 1909 and became part of the Burton Group in 1979.
It entered administration in 2020 and was acquired by Boohoo alongside Burton and Wallis for £25m. Its stores also closed.
For the 12 months to February 28, 2023, the brand’s revenue fell from £74.9m to £52.7m but its pre-tax losses were slashed from £15.9m to £1.2m.
In the UK its sales dropped from £70.2m to £44.1m and from £3.4m to £3.2m in the rest of the world. However, they increased from £1.3m to £5.3m in the rest of Europe.
The average number of people directly employed by Dorothy Perkins during the year fell from 133 to 100.
Coast
Founded in 1996, Coast was bought out of administration alongside Karen Millen in 2018. It is now an online only business.
For the year to February 28, 2023, Coast’s revenue increased from £19.5m to £30.4m and its pre-tax profits rose from £1m to £1.3m.
In the UK its sales went from £16.4m to £24.2m while they grew from £1.3m to £3.8m in the rest of Europe and from £1.7m to £2.3m in the rest of the world.
During the year the average number of people directly employed by Coast went from 22 to 26.
What has Boohoo said?
An identical statement published in each of the separate accounts said: “For the year ending February 28, 2024, the company continues to plan for a challenging external environment.
“Revenues are expected to decline as demand factors that impacted performance in the second half of the previous financial year continue to persist.
“These are anticipated to begin normalising in the second half with the company benefiting from the investments being made across price, product and proposition under our back to growth strategy.
“Over the medium term, the company is targeting continued improvements in profitability building towards a 6 per cent and to 8 per cent EBITDA margin through: investing in our product, price and proposition, unlocking input cost deflation, reducing returns, delivering volume growth, leveraging overheads and achieving growth internationally.”
The statement added: “The global market for online fashion is forecast to continue to grow, which provides a favourable backdrop for the company.
“Customers throughout the world are seeking a wide choice of quality fashion forward products at value prices, with the convenience of home delivery.
“The company’s target market has a high propensity to spend on fashion and the market has proven to be quite resilient to external macroeconomic factors.
“The pandemic has impacted our business and is most significantly seen in the unpredictability of customer demand, the rate of customer returns, the increase in shipping times and the cost of shipping on both inbound and outbound products.
“Some of these factors, such as the rate of customer returns, have already reverted from the low rates during the pandemic to rates seen before the pandemic.
“Previous cost increases in relation to inbound freight have moved back towards pre-pandemic levels, with supply chains speeding up, allowing for the company to look to reinforce its USPs and value credentials for its fashion-conscious customers globally.”