Farfetch UK Limited has filed its accounts for 2024 (only five months after its very-late 2023 numbers were released) and they show the business continuing to make a loss.
Photo: Pixabay – Photo: Public domain
Before the figures though, there needs to be an explanation: Farfetch UK isn’t the entire Farfetch operation. It’s now owned by South Koreas’s Coupang, but as the parent group doesn’t break out Farfetch figures separately, even within the limits of the information these accounts offer, it does give clues to how the wider business is progressing.
The accounts cover the 2024 calendar year, which was a big one for Farfetch as Coupang acquired it that January.
The net loss for the year was $471.4 million, which looks pretty huge but was at least a lot smaller than the 2023 net loss of $805.5 million. Do note that the company reports in US dollars having previously been listed on the New York Stock Exchange, despite it’s UK/Europe HQ.
Its loss narrowed despite revenue for the year decreasing by 12% to just under $1.078 billion.
One of the key reasons for the falling revenue was because the business took the strategic decision to “significantly” move away from its reliance on promotions in the belief that this will result in a “healthier, more sustainable trajectory” for it.
Additionally, there was the implementation of new sales models across the group, which resulted in a change in the mix of first-party and third-party revenue streams. This resulted in other group entities contracting directly with partners instead of the company itself.
Another key reason for the revenue fall in 2024 was one that was beyond its control with the overall market continuing to decline.
The company said revenue divided into $88 million in the UK (up from $73.5 million a year earlier); $271.7 million in the rest of Europe (down from $435.8 million); $247.9 million in the US (down from $259.6 million); and $470.3 million in the rest of the world (up from $456.5 million).
It added that the main reason for the smaller loss this time was due to a reduction in the impairment charge during the year. In 2023 the impairment charge had been more than half a billion dollars while in 2024 it was ‘only’ a little over $33 million.
Management also put cost reduction initiatives in place and said this helped boost its net cash position quite significantly.
Meanwhile, the UK-registered Farfetch China Ltd’s accounts have also been filed and show revenue of $63.9 million for the period, down from $116.6 million. The net loss was also narrower at $44.1 million after $113.9 million the year before.
That particular company operates the marketplace in the Greater China region.
