Dr Martens continues to stride ahead, US trading is robust

Dr Martens released its first set of results as a listed company on Thursday and the figures showed just why its recent IPO was such a success. In the year to March 31, revenue rose 15% and EBITDA was up as much as 22%. That was despite the year covering a pandemic period in which stores were closed for months on end and the footwear category as a whole was reportedly weak.

The company acknowledged that it saw challenges during the year,  but CEO Kenny Wilson said that its “strategy is delivering strong results. We continue to prioritise selling directly to our consumers and, with retail severely impacted by Covid-19 restrictions, we focused our efforts on a step-change in e-commerce, achieving revenue growth of 73%”.

He added that “the investments and improvements we made in our supply chain in recent years, along with our multi-country sourcing model and close supplier relationships allowed us to quickly react to a rapidly changing environment, ensuring minimal disruption and maintaining good availability throughout”.

So let’s look more in-depth at the figures that he was so pleased about. As mentioned, revenue was up 15%, or 16% in constant currency, reaching £773 million. The 22% EBITDA jump saw that figure coming in as £224.2 million, while adjusted pre-tax profit rose 34% to £151.4 million. Net profit actually fell 52% to £35.7 million, but that was because of exceptional items adding up to more than £80 million relating to its IPO.

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