River Island has had a newsworthy year with the company having reportedly been on the brink of collapse if its restructuring plan hadn’t been approved. And having just filed its accounts for 2024, we can see what was going on in the period that led up to the need for the comprehensive restructuring, including store closures.

The company — River Island Holdings Limited — made a loss before tax of £124.3 million, much wider than the £32.2 million loss of the year before. That came as turnover fell to £690.1 million from £701.5 million and gross profit dropped to £37 million from £46.7 million. The operating loss also widened dramatically to £125.7 million from £34.1 million. And the net loss for the financial year was £138.4 million after a loss of £24.4 million in the previous year.

Recent years have been particularly tough for the business with it having swung to that £32.2 million pre-tax loss in 2023 after having made a profit of £7.5 million for 2022. Turnover during 2023 had fallen 15.1% although the previous year had been flattered by being a 53-week period rather than 52 weeks.

But at the time of releasing its 2023 figures in October 2024 it had said that 2023 was a year of “reset for the business” with product ranges refocused and a new leadership structure put in place, plus other key moves.

It had also said it was starting to see the benefits from its investment with customers “reacting positively” and “improved business performance”. 

The lower sales and wider losses it has just released for 2024, followed by the 2025 restructuring, would suggest that the improved trading either ended or simply wasn’t enough to turn around the company’s performance. Yet there were undeniable signs of the company starting to get back on track even last year.

In 2024, the turnover drop was only 1.6% and like-for-like turnover that excluded closed stores was down only 0.3%.

Higher costs

So what caused the very much wider pre-tax loss? The firm was hit by a non-cash provision of £80.4 million on an inter-company loan balance, as well as an £11.2 million increase in its trading loss. And it was impacted by a significant inflationary increase in the cost of good sold, which contributed to a lower gross margin on a percentage basis. That caused a 20.8% fall in gross profit.

It also saw significant inflationary pressures in its operating costs with staff costs increasing by 7.6%. And while cost savings in multiple areas did help, it’s overall distribution and admin costs increased.

As we know, the company has put a major restructuring plan in place which was approved in August by the High Court. This enabled a step change in the size and profitability of the retail estate and secured long-term funding. It now has a new and secure financing facility until 2028 and has been putting its restructuring plan into action that it said should allow it to return to profitability.

Part of that plan is Ben Lewis having returned as group CEO, having managed the business for nearly a decade before he stepped down in 2019. The company also appointed a new CFO in late 2024.

Its transformation plan sees it now working on right-sizing its store estate, growing like-for-like sales at improved margins and investing in growth and productivity.

It said it’s already seeing significant returns on its strategy with the gross margin percentage greatly improved, costs significantly reduced and underlying sales in its retail estate returning to growth. It’s expecting “a significant improvement in profitability” for the current year, although we probably won’t find out the details of this for some time, unless the company chooses to share the good news in advance of its next Companies House filing.