Fashion firm SuperGroup cheered a "return to form" today as it revealed plans to spend £30 million on ramping up expansion in the UK and internationally.
The retailer, which owns the Superdry, Cult and SurfCo California brands, posted a 22% hike in underlying pre-tax profits to £52.2 million for the year to April 28 after turnaround efforts including a revamp of womenswear helped like-for-like sales lift 5.7%. Bottom line profits rose 0.8% to £51.8 million.
Its performance is a marked recovery on the previous year when profits slumped 14.7% following an accountancy blunder and after being caught out with stock shortages as it struggled to keep up with its rapid rate of expansion.
The group retrenched to focus on getting the business back on track, but founder and chief executive Julian Dunkerton today hailed "significant opportunities for growth" after a better year for the group.
Having added 66,000 square feet of retail space over the past year, it now plans to boost its chain by 80,000 to 100,000 sq ft across the UK and Europe and add around 50 franchised stores internationally.
It is also setting its sights on China with aims to trial a website in the country next year, adding to the 16 sites currently operating worldwide.
SuperGroup has 85 fully-owned stores across the UK and Ireland out of a total of 401 owned, franchise and concession stores worldwide.
Mr Dunkerton, who co-founded the group as a market stall in Cheltenham, said: "The financial performance for the year represents a return to form for the group."
The firm also said trading in the first nine weeks of the new financial year had been encouraging.
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