Supergroup in bullish mood as it eyes growth
SUPERGROUP chief executive Julian Dunkerton said yesterday he was looking forward to a “new dawn” for the company, insisting it had drawn a line under operational errors that sparked three profit warnings last year.
Shares in the fashion retailer, down 62 per cent over the year, perked up 16 per cent yesterday after it met forecasts with an underlying profit of £42.8m in the year to 29 April, down 15 per cent on the previous year.
The group had forecast £50m-£54m at the start of the financial year before “arithmetic errors”, timing issues in its wholesale business and IT warehousing problems caused the group to warn on profit.
Dunkerton said, while the current environment was challenging and wet weather “unprecedented”, trading in the first quarter was in line with management expectations.
The group, which trades as Superdry, opened 26 stores in the UK and Europe, taking the total to 103 and upped it overseas outlets to 101.
Dunkerton said the group would be focusing on expanding floor space this year at existing and successful stores and would be growing “in a controlled and measured way”.
“We have grown 674 per cent in four years. It’s a phenomenal growth and what we have done is let our investors down on a couple of fronts this last year”, he admitted.
“Obviously we are still going to grow… but we have got to make sure we do not have any hiccups along the way.”