Profit up but revenue flat at Very Group

The group recorded earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) up 8.4% to £267.6m (FY23: £246.9m).

Very UK revenue edged up slightly by 0.7% to £1.84bn (FY23: £1.82bn), group revenue declined by 1% to £2.13bn.

Very Finance saw revenue growth of 3.1% to £435.0m (FY23: £422.1m).

Its fashion and sports category declined 5.5% "in a challenging and contracting market" it said. However it added some categories had bucked the trend, including casual womenswear, which was up by 3%, watches by 3.6% and premium fashion was up by 15.5%.

The group said “resilient top line and careful cost management” saw pre-exceptional operating profit grow 17.1% to £218.3m (FY23: £186.5m), its highest level since FY19, with operating costs as a percentage of revenue reaching the lowest the group has ever achieved at 23.2%, “despite inflationary pressures”.

Robbie Feather, CEO at The Very Group, said: "In a challenging environment, our results reflect a resilient retail performance that remained ahead of the UK online non-food market, as well as a continued strong Very Finance performance.”

In February The Very Group announced investment of £125m as it posted a loss before tax of £2m for the 26 weeks to 30 December. In September it tapped former Asos boss Nick Beighton as a non-executive director.