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.
River Island
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.
In a crowded sports performancewear market, it’s important to have a strong message. So the Over+Above (O+A) brand is entering a new chapter with the tagline ‘Redefining Performance Wear for Body and Mind’.
Image: Over+Above
The online retailer’s ‘performance-first’ brand (‘created by athletes, for athletes’) is presenting a campaign to “renew its mission” by introducing ‘Freedom in Mind’ as a “bold creative campaign that signals a decisive evolution for the brand: performance isn’t only physical, it’s deeply human”.
This new chapter also marks the start of a series of ambassadorships, with ex-England rugby union captain Chris Robshaw joining in a creative partnership with endurance athlete and brand ambassador Ryan Libbey, “whose personal fitness journey and alignment with O+A’s values inspired the collaboration”.
The first of the campaign films was shot in the Peak District, following Libbey as he trained for an Iron Man challenge, “capturing not only the physical demands but also the emotional depth behind performance training”.
Through his journey, O+A “delves into the highs and lows of sport”, namely the vulnerability, setbacks, discipline, and breakthroughs, “experiences that the brand’s CEO, ex-England cricketer Matt Prior, and its ambassadors “understand intimately”.
At the heart of the campaign sits the ‘Director’s Cut’, “a more personal, direct, and fluid interpretation that weaves these layers into one cohesive narrative”.
At the core of the brand’s innovation lies its “market-leading” ProPrio product range that has been “anatomically engineered with patented kinesiology-inspired technology” that claims to have “already set a new benchmark in performance and compressionwear”.
The range includes full tights, half tights, calf sleeves, long-and short-sleeve tops and racquet sleeves, at oaperformance.com in sizes XS to XXL.
Womenswear brand Club L London has been expanding fast in recent periods and that can be seen from its newly-released 2024/25 results that saw profit before tax jumping 51%.
Club L London
For the 12 months to March this year, its turnover rose to £65.9 million from £44.4 million, a 48% leap.
Meanwhile gross profit rose as much as 62% to £37.8 million from £23.4 million, and the aforementioned profit before tax was up to £14 million from just under £3.1 million a year earlier.
Profit margins rose from 6.9% to 21.1% and net assets also grew significantly, from £9.1 million to £16.6 million, “reflecting the brand’s strengthened financial position and its capacity to continue investing in growth initiatives”.
Its net profit for the year rose to £10.38 million from £2.57 million.
The company said the performance was primarily driven by the brand’s strategic expansion into international markets and targeted investments in infrastructure and technology.
The US delivered 90% growth, Australia 83%, and the Middle East an “exceptional” 417% increase year-on-year. Europe also experienced saw triple-digit growth, “supported by an expanding international customer base and carefully executed localisation strategies across Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, and Saudi Arabia”.
The company launched localised webstores as part of this process “with end-to-end translation and cultural adaptations to ensure a seamless and locally relevant customer experience”.
Meanwhile, the opening of a dedicated US 3PL facility has improved delivery times — something that’s vital for European businesses aiming to crack the US market — as well as strengthening logistics capacity, and improving the overall customer experience.
Marketing chief Dan Sorensen said: “Following on from key infrastructural investments made previously, we’ve been able to scale profitably both domestically and internationally giving us an opportunity to serve our customers better across all borders.”
During the year in question and since it ended, the company has been extremely busy. Just before the latest financial year finished, it acquired Lavish Alice for an undisclosed seven-figure sum, “uniting two leading, legacy brands”.
Then in July, it launched a localised German website and in September launched on Middle Eastern e-commerce platform Ounass.
It looks like Frasers Group may be planning to relaunch Matchesfashion in 2026 although it’s not a dead cert and there’s been no confirmation from the company.
Matchesfashion
A report said the Matchesfashion.com website was back online with the words “relaunching 2026” under the name. But the situation is unclear as all that’s there as we published this story was an almost-empty page in the brand’s familiar green tone with no mention of a relaunch date.
A relaunch wouldn’t exactly come as a shock, although the speed with which Frasers had earlier closed the business did surprise some.
Frasers acquired the business out of administration for a reported £52 million just before Christmas 2023 but put it into administration in March 2024, citing the enormity of the task to turn it around.
Matches — which began as a physical retailer — had been one of the pioneers of luxury online retail and once had a valuation of around £800 million. But a succession of CEOs failed to turn it into a digital-first business that was able to make a profit.
Its struggles came at the same time as other pioneers such as Farfetch and Net-A-Porter encountered their own profitability problems.
But despite the problem with online luxury real, the big names in the sector remain valuable properties with a high profile. Coupang’s acquisition of Farfetch and LuxExperience’s purchase of Yoox Net-A-Porter highlighted how in-demand they are.
As for Matchesfashion, there had been rumours of a comeback for it and in May, The Times reported that Frasers was working on a “members-only Matches Fashion relaunch” and that it had seen an “internal pitch deck” suggesting the luxury fashion webstore could be turned into what it described as the “Soho House of retail”.
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