By Petah Marian
Fourth quarter sales soared by 38% in the UK for Asos, the company reported this week.
Strong overseas growth boosted total group revenues to £342 million, up 37% on the same period a year earlier, and setting up the company to hit its goal of hitting £1 billion of sales in 2014.
Asos now has 7.9 million active customers, up 41% on December 2012.
Asos chief executive Nick Robertson said: "We have enjoyed another strong Christmas and made a good start to the financial year, with retail sales growth for the four months to 31 December 2013 up 38% to £335.7 million.
“Retail sales in the UK were particularly strong at +37%, and internationally sales grew by 38% with a notable performance from the EU segment at +69%. These results were driven by significant improvements to our customer proposition, including better delivery options, additional payment methods and the roll out of our premier service in key international markets.
“Pleasingly, we ended the period with 7.9 million active customers, 41% ahead of prior year, and our retail gross margin also increased, by 90 bps, reflecting tighter stock control."
Robertson also updated investors on the progress of expanding its logistics and manufacturing capabilities.
“Work on significantly increasing the capacity of our Barnsley site continues and we plan to open our central European distribution centre later this year,” he announced.
Asos sells watch brands for men and women including Sekonda, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld and Nixon. The watch offer is curated by DM London, which also runs watch departments in John Lewis and Selfridges as well as running retail outlets The Watch Hut and The Watch Gallery.
