Boohoo sales have soared over the past four months, putting the online fashion retailer on track to surpass profit and revenue forecasts for the year.

The online retailer continued its recent rapid growth to post a 44% jump in revenues to £473.7 million for the four months to December 31.

Boohoo said it was pleased with growth across its core brands as well as recently acquired brands Karen Millen, Coast and MissPap.

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This is the latest in a series of profit upgrades by the Manchester-based retail group which has gone from strength to strength in recent years despite wider challenges in the retail sector.

The group said it expects to deliver revenue growth of between 40% and 42% for the year to February 2020, ahead of its previous range of between 33% and 38% growth.

It added that profit margins are expected to be between 10% and 10.2%, just ahead of its previous forecast of 10%.

The Boohoo brand saw sales jump 42% over the past four months to £232.6 million, while sales for its PrettyLittleThing brand increased by 32% to £190.8 million for the period.

Fast-growing brand Nasty Gal continued to see sales surge, with revenues for the period rocketing 102% to £41.5 million.
Meanwhile, the firm also lauded the "successful integration" of the three brands is acquired last year.

John Lyttle, chief executive of Boohoo, said: "All of our brands have performed exceptionally well and delivered strong market share gains. We have continued to see operating leverage in our more established brands and will continue to invest into them and our newly-acquired brands.

"The newly-acquired brands, MissPap, Karen Millen and Coast, are showing great promise and open different target markets for the group, in line with our strategy to build our multi-brand platform."

Games Workshop has hailed record sales and profits over the past half-year as the fantasy games specialist shrugged off recent malaise in the retail sector.

Shares in the retailer jumped after it said pre-tax profits increased by 44% to £58.6 million over the six months to December 1.

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It added that sales in December were in line with the board's expectations, adding that the business is "in great shape".

The Warhammer maker reported a 19% jump in sales for the six-month period to £148.4 million, ahead of the company's previous guidance.

Games Workshop was particularly boosted by strong growth in its trade division, which saw sales increase 23.9% to £76.1 million.

It said this was driven by the addition of 200 new trade accounts as it increased supply to independent retailers.

Its own retail business saw sales increase by 6.3% to £45.3 million as it was strengthened by 19 new store openings.
The company also reported a 14% increase in online revenues to £24.2 million for the period.

It said that an increase in licensing agreements saw its income from royalties increase by £5.2 million to £10.7 million.

Chief executive Kevin Rountree said: "Our business and the Warhammer hobby continue to be in great shape.
"We are pleased to once again report record sales and profit levels in the period.

"The global team have worked their socks off to deliver these great results. My thanks go out to them all."

The business has been a major success story for investors in recent years.

Shares in Games Workshop leapt 9.2% to 6,960p in early trading on Tuesday.

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey said that despite the economic and political uncertainty throughout last year, it managed to increase the number of houses it built and the price paid by new homeowners.

In the last year home completions increased 5% to 15,719, with 3,548 affordable homes built.

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Cancellations ticked up slightly from 14% in 2018 to 15% last year, although average selling prices on private completions rose 1% to £305,000.

The company's total order book hit £2.18 billion as at December 31 last year - up from £1.78 billion - although building costs also rose by 4.5%.

Chief executive Pete Redfern said: "Despite an uncertain political and economic backdrop in 2019, we have continued to experience a good level of demand for our homes and trading in the second half of the year was as anticipated.

"In 2019, our focus was on strengthening the long-term sustainability of the business, further improving our build quality and customer offering, as well as increasing operating capacity and flexibility."

He added that Taylor Wimpey's short-term landbank is at 76,000 plots, with the company operating a "broadly replacement approach to our landbank".

At its current rate of building, the company would have enough land to build homes for the next 4.8 years.

The company added: "While 2020 will continue to be a year of change for the UK, we welcome the increased political stability following the general election.

"We start the year with a strong order book and continue to target a smoother profile of completions throughout the year but expect 2020 to continue to be second half weighted."