Asos PLC — Earnings Release 2014

Jan 14, 2014

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RNS Number : 5511X

ASOS PLC

14 January 2014

14 January 2014

ASOS plc ("the Company")

Global Online Fashion Destination

Trading Statement for the four months ended 31 December 2013

	Four months to 31 December
£'000s	2013/14	2012/13	Increase
UK retail sales	133,667	97,713	37%
US retail sales	32,253	25,280	28%
EU retail sales	87,295	51,780	69%
ROW retail sales	82,450	69,083	19%
Total International retail sales	201,998	146,143	38%
Total retail sales	335,665	243,856	38%
Total group revenues*	342,567	249,219	37%

* Includes retail sales, delivery receipts and third party revenues.

Highlights

·    Retail sales +38% year on year (UK +37%, International +38%)

·    International retail sales 60% of total (60% last year)

·    Retail gross margin up c.90bps on prior year

·    7.9 million active customers* at 31 December 2013 (+41% year on year)

·    Strong balance sheet and cash position

*Defined as having shopped in the last 12 months

Nick Robertson, CEO, commented:

"We have enjoyed another strong Christmas and made a good start to the financial year, with retail sales growth for the four months to 31 December 2013 up 38% to £335.7m.

Retail sales in the UK were particularly strong at +37%, and internationally sales grew by 38% with a notable performance from the EU segment at +69%. These results were driven by significant improvements to our customer proposition, including better delivery options, additional payment methods and the roll out of our premier service in key international markets. 

Pleasingly we ended the period with 7.9 million active customers, 41% ahead of prior year, and our retail gross margin also increased, by 90 bps, reflecting tighter stock control. 

Work on significantly increasing the capacity of our Barnsley site continues and we plan to open our central European distribution centre later this year. 

The business continues to trade in line with expectations".

Analyst/Investor conference call:

ASOS will be hosting a conference call for analysts and investors at 8:30am (UK Time) today. Please call Jamie Ramsay at College Hill for dial-in details on 020 7457 2047 or email jamie.ramsay@collegehill.com.

A recording of this conference call will be available on the ASOS Plc investor centre website later today: http://www.asosplc.com/investors.aspx 

Photography:

Latest photography will be available at: http://www.asosplc.com/media/image-library.aspx

For further information:

ASOS plc	Tel: 020 7756 1000
Nick Robertson, Chief Executive
Nick Beighton, Finance Director Greg Feehely, Head of Investor Relations
College Hill	Tel: 020 7457 2020
Matthew Smallwood / Justine Warren / Jamie Ramsay
JPMorgan Cazenove	Tel: 020 7742 4000
Luke Bordewich / Gina Gibson
Numis Securities	Tel: 020 7260 1000
Alex Ham

Background note

ASOS is a global online fashion and beauty retailer selling over 65,000 branded and own-label products to fashion forward twenty-somethings through our website, asos.com. We ship, for free, to 237 countries and territories from our 1.1 million square foot global distribution centre in the UK.

We tailor the mix of own-label, global and local brands sold through each of our nine local language websites: UK, US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Russia and China.

ASOS's websites attract 29.5 million unique visitors* a month (31 December 2012: 23.7 million) and as at 31 December 2013 had 14.8 million registered users (31 December 2012: 10.5 million) and 7.9 million active customers** (31 December 2012: 5.6 million).

* Desktop visitors only; excludes mobile and tablet visitors

** Defined as having shopped in the last 12 months

www.asos.com 

www.us.asos.com

www.asos.de

www.asos.fr

www.asos.com/au

www.asos.it

www.asos.es

www.asos.com/ru

www.asos.com/cn

m.asos.com

marketplace.asos.com

fashionfinder.asos.com

Appendix 1

Retail sales by quarter for the year ending 31 August 2014

£'000s	Q11	YOY%	Q22	YOY%	Q3	YOY%	Q4	YOY%	YTD  2013/14	YOY%
UK retail sales	133,667	37%							133,667	37%
US retail sales	32,253	28%							32,253	28%
EU retail sales	87,295	69%							87,295	69%
ROW retail sales	82,450	19%							82,450	19%
International retail sales	201,998	38%							201,998	38%
Total retail sales	335,665	38%							335,665	38%

Retail sales by quarter for the year ending 31 August 2013

£'000s	Q11	YOY%	Q22	YOY%	Q3	YOY%	Q4	YOY%	2012/13	YOY%
UK retail sales	97,713	28%	39,866	23%	64,347	39%	74,101	49%	276,027	34%
US retail sales	25,280	56%	10,271	48%	21,255	59%	20,872	59%	77,678	57%
EU retail sales	51,780	29%	25,677	53%	47,215	56%	53,036	73%	177,708	51%
ROW retail sales	69,083	39%	32,593	34%	60,796	38%	59,922	26%	222,394	35%
International retail sales	146,143	38%	68,541	43%	129,266	48%	133,830	47%	477,780	44%
Total retail sales	243,856	34%	108,407	35%	193,613	45%	207,931	47%	753,807	40%

Retail sales by quarter for the year ending 31 August 2012

£'000s	Q11	YOY%	Q22	YOY%	Q3	YOY%	Q4	YOY%	2011/12	YOY%
UK retail sales	76,581	11%	32,386	4%	46,437	8%	49,854	15%	205,258	10%
US retail sales	16,209	154%	6,928	66%	13,351	78%	13,097	65%	49,585	91%
EU retail sales	40,118	37%	16,728	29%	30,224	27%	30,678	22%	117,748	29%
ROW retail sales	49,654	196%	24,317	106%	43,912	71%	47,413	53%	165,296	94%
International retail sales	105,981	102%	47,973	66%	87,487	54%	91,188	42%	332,629	64%
Total retail sales	182,562	50%	80,359	34%	133,924	34%	141,042	31%	537,887	38%

1Four months to 31 December

2 Two months to 28 February 

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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