Very and Littlewoods owner The Very Group said the year to the end of June saw “significant earnings growth, driven by a strong performance from both the retail and financial services businesses and diligent cost discipline across the group”.
Very Group
It meant the company saw an increase in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of 15.9% to £307.1 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin that rose to 14.7% from 12.5%. That was the highest earnings margin it has ever achieved.
Not that all the figures headed upwards. The company said Very UK revenue “was broadly stable, with a slight decline” of 0.2% to £1.83 billion, while group revenue fell 1.8% to £2.09 billion, “reflecting a focus on profitability over volume in a challenging retail market”. It didn’t give details for the legacy Littlewoods operation.
But the group gross margin grew 1% in the year to 36.6% reflecting a strong [financial services] performance and the changes to the retail sales mix, notably through the increase in higher-margin Home sales”.
But despite Home doing well, Fashion and Sports declined 3.7% “in a heavily discounted and challenging market”. And its overall small sales decline came despite Very continuing to expand its brand portfolio, “adding leading names [sport] such as New Balance, Decathlon and Sweaty Betty”. But Beauty increased by 5.2%, “following significant targeted investment”.
CEO Robbie Feather said: “FY25 was a year of real progress for Very. As a multi-category digital retailer and flexible payments provider, we have a unique business model which continues to resonate with the families we serve. [We] achieve[d] our best-ever customer satisfaction score.
“Despite a challenging economic backdrop, we’re delighted with our performance, driven by our focus on improving all aspects of our offer and customer experience. We ensured we had the right products at the right time, at the right prices, and with the right payment options. Together with disciplined cost control we were able to deliver significant earnings growth across the year.
“We also made strong progress against our strategic priorities, completing key milestones in our technology transformation and upgrades to our apps and websites, relaunching Very’s retail media proposition, and launching HelloStudio, our in-house creative agency.”
