In The Style making ‘solid progress’ on growth strategy, says CEO

Womenswear e-tailer In The Style is making “solid progress” on its strategy to increase profitability and manage its cash position, its CEO said Friday.

Though the Manchester-based company didn’t provide any specific trading figures, it did outline a number of recent strategic developments it has made.

The retailer said it successfully moved its operations to a new, larger 84,000 square foot warehouse at the end of August where it is now “fully operational”.

It expects the move to result in benefits to its distribution costs per unit while also providing “sufficient capacity for future growth”.

In The Style said it has made “good progress” in optimising stock buys, which it said was in line with its strategic focus on increasing the proportion of full price sales.

It expects these buy quantity reductions to benefit the level of gross margin generated by the group from October 2022.

The company also said it saw one of its biggest ever days of gross order value (GOV) when it launched 'FITS', a collection of own-brand wardrobe staples.

It said the new collection will provide it with additional opportunities to increase sales outside of the group's traditional influencer campaign launch cycle.

Additionally, In The Style said it completed a restructuring of its marketing, technology, and product departments “to increase operating efficiencies” from October 2022.

Chief executive officer Sam Perkins said in a statement: “We have made solid progress against the group's refined long-term growth strategy outlined at our FY22 results in July.”

In the year to March 31, In The Style swung to a full-year pre-tax profit of 1.5 million pounds compared to a profit of 125,000 pounds the year before.

That came despite revenue increasing 28 percent to 57.3 million pounds.

The retailer cited supply chain disruption and inflationary pressures linked to Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict as contributing factors, as cost increases for products and freight put pressure on its gross margin.

The company said at the time it expects group revenue for the current year to be broadly flat, and for an adjusted EBITDA loss of 2 million pounds in light of “very uncertain market conditions”.

Perkins said Friday: “As has been widely reported, the trading environment is a challenging one for both consumers and retailers.

“The launch model and our position as a pure-play online retailer allows us to respond quickly to changing consumer behaviour, whilst not losing sight of achieving In The Style's long-term potential as one of the UK's most exciting fashion brands.”