Very.co.uk’s Shop Direct profits surge 78% in latest FY

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Oct 27, 2015

The UK online retailer reported a third consecutive year of record profits in its financial year ending June 30, 2015, with profits up 78% to £71.7 million, compared to £40.4 million in 2013/14.

Driven by head site Very.co.uk, which delivered a sales growth of 21% to more than £850 million, the results mark the group’s strategy to becoming a 100% digital retailer. “We passed some important milestones last year,” said Alex Baldock, group CEO. “We called time on the catalogue, and we are now a pureplay retailer dedicated to digital. We’ve transformed quickly to this more focused business – only three years ago, nearly three-quarters of our sales were from catalogue customers.”

The bet on Very’s e-commerce trade paid off: the online department store selling clothing, footwear, electrical, home, furniture and toys saw its mobile device sales double in the 12-month period, taking a 59% share of total online sales. Web traffic broke the 1 million per day mark, said the retailer.

The group also launched VeryExclusive.co.uk in February 2015 offering over 150 accessible and high street luxury labels, including Marc by Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Red Valentino, Reiss and Joseph.

In June, Shop Direct also announced it would wind down its brands Woolworths, Isme and K&Co to redirect investment into propelling growth of its most popular brands, Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.co.uk. The transition took place mid-June and transferred customers’ accounts to its other platforms.

In total, the group's sales grew 3% to £1.8 billion, compared to £1.7 billion in 2013/2014.