Ted Baker’s twice-delayed full-year results looked grim on Monday as the fashion retailer announced a 44%+ drop in revenue and a pre-tax loss that widened by almost 39%.
The 53 weeks to January 30 covered the height of the pandemic and was always likely to be a bad time for the business. But the company also highlighted the strategic progress it had made and its “increasing brand strength”.
Yet that didn’t help it post-period-end as Monday also saw the company reporting Q1 revenues for the 12 weeks to April 24.
Q1 was hit hard by store closures due to the latest lockdowns in the UK, Europe and Canada for parts of the period. Group revenue fell 19.9% in total, or 17.3% constant currency.
E-commerce sales rose during the quarter by only 4.5%, although that’s 25.9% higher compared to the ‘normal’ Q1 during 2019. And it achieved the rise despite taking “a less heavy promotional stance compared to the prior year”. That helped the gross profit margin for e-commerce to increase around 250 bps.
