Reduced TV ads dent Cotton Traders sales slightly but online and stores remain strong

Heritage fashion brand Cotton Traders said on Tuesday that its 2024 profit rose as its online market share increased and marketplaces expansion boosted the business. And despite an overall turnover dip, the sales story online looked strong even with lower marketing spend.

It called the 2024 performance “steady… in the face of a turbulent macro environment”. Following a 52-week financial year in 2023, the like-for-like 52 weeks in 2024 saw the brand with operating profit up 3% to £9.46 million and EBITDA up 4% to £11.94 million. But overall sales declined slightly, as expected, dipping 1% to £107.88 million.

The company said the profits rise was primarily due to continued sales growth online as it saw repeat shopping from existing customers together with the recruitment of new customers on the brand’s own platform. New customers were also driven to it from marketplaces. 

That marketplace activity continued for the brand with both the Debenhams Group and Freemans Group in 2024, and it saw further expansion into Matalan in January this year. It also said sales across the brand’s 89 stores were “instrumental in overall sales growth”.

And its stores were helped by two additional locations being operational during the year, plus a wider programme of in-store modernisation, refits and an increase in total estate square footage. 

So how come there was a fall in the brand’s turnover? This was “predominantly driven by the strategy to rest brand advertising (namely TV) due to the turbulent economic climate in 2024”. But mass media returned to the marketing mix in H1 2025, with a six-week campaign period. 

Chief marketing officer Shona Jameson said of this: “In our pursuit to reposition brand perceptions, this rest period allowed us to re-assess and revisit our brand persona, and our ‘Full of Surprises’ brand campaign addressed brand and audience misconceptions head-on in a memorable, humorous way that talks directly to our target audience; challenging them to reassess what they thought they knew about Cotton Traders”.

The brand also reported omnichannel success with growth in its Order In Store programme of 1.9%. CEO Nick Hamblin said it saw “a real resurgence to stores in 2024, and our omnichannel offering is stronger than ever, which in turn is increasing our sales across bricks and mortar”. 

Hamblin added that the company is “encouraged by the brand’s increase in operating profits throughout 2024, most notably driven through an incremental increase in online and in-store sales, combined with customers being driven to the brand through successfully implementing our marketplace growth strategy – all in the face of a turbulent economic period”.