Pentland Group posts revenue surge as Ellesse, JD Sports shine

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jul 3, 2017

Pentland, the owner of outdoor and fashion brands including Berghaus, had a stellar 2016 with revenue up 21% to £2.9bn, fuelled by the favourable activewear trend in Europe and JD Sports’ record performance.

Revenue from Pentland brands, including Berghaus, Boxfresh, Canterbury, Ellesse, KangaROOS and Speedo, and other non-retail businesses was up 1% to £634m, with Ellesse and the Ted Baker Footwear licence outperforming the group’s expectations.

Pentland said its brands “performed strongly” despite continued challenging global market conditions. In 2016, Speedo moved to a direct-to-consumer business model in China, a priority market for the brand; Ellesse enjoyed a 45% increase in revenue; Canterbury and Mitre delivered strong growth with key trading partners, and Ted Baker footwear achieved 6% increase in sales across all UK channels, US department stores and e-commerce sales. 

But the group’s main driver of growth was JD Sports Fashion, in which Pentland is the majority shareholder. In 2016, the sportswear company had an exceptional performance with revenue up 28% to £2.3bn and operating profits strongly ahead of the prior year.

Pentland said group operating profit doubled to £331m in 2016, and net assets increased by 32% to £1,044m.