Peacocks, Bonmarché and EWM return to profitability following administrations

High street retailers Peacocks, Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) and Bonmarché, part of Purepay Retail Ltd’s portfolio, have each reported a return to profitability after filing for administration in 2020.

Together with sister brand Ponden Home, the EWM and Bonmarché’s parent company saw a “robust” turnover for the trio of 195.094 million pounds for the year to February 2023, with an operating profit of 8.07 million pounds.

Purepay said that its strategy since acquiring the companies out of administration had been to centre attention towards the “often neglected 50 plus market”, with each brand to cater its offering towards such individuals.

For Bonmarché, this has revolved around rewarding customer loyalty, with efforts evidenced by upgrades to store portfolio, investments in celebrity partnerships and an increased regularity of new designs.

Meanwhile, EWM has turned its attention to its high street store portfolio and tourist leisure sites, the latter of which now account for half the business, Purepay noted.

In what has been a strategy designed to cater to the gap left behind from disappearing high street department stores, EWM has widened its choice of casual fashion and heritage accessories, pushing new designs like printed tops and dresses which Purepay said had helped drive growth.

Both EWM and Bonmarché have further set about expanding their store footprint. While EWM has increased its presence from 183 to 191 over the year, with emphasis on market towns and tourist locations, Bonmarché has grown from 175 stores to 201.

The two retailers also welcomed notable growth among their website traffic, EWM seeing sales on its respective site increase 36 percent and Bonmarché’s rising by 17.4 percent.

Strategic store placement defines Peacocks restructuring efforts

High street retailer Peacocks is also back in black years after it fell into administration due to impact from extensive, pandemic-induced lockdowns. In a filing with the UK’s Companies House, the brand, which trades under Anglo Global Property Limited, reported a turnover of 238 million pounds for the year to February 2023, while operating profit came to 14.65 million pounds over the same period. Its adjusted EBITDA came to 19.47 million pounds.

The company underwent a restructuring in 2021, and has since been focused on “strengthening its position in the value market by adopting a continued strategy of investment in the brand, quality and key product areas”, a press release said.

The “strong” performance was particularly driven by investments into denim, shirts and activewear categories across both men’s and womenswear.

In a statement, Peacocks CEO, Steve Simpson, said: “In the last two years we have been focused on a strategy of offering our customers exceptional quality and value for the whole family.

“With the backdrop of a cost of living crisis we have been committed to offering our customers even better products than we have done before, still at low prices.”

Next to the induction of celebrity ambassadors, which Simpson said had helped to improve style perception and deliver strong growth at the retailer, the company also reevaluated the development of its store estate.

Throughout 2023, Peacocks opened a number of new stores in key retail locations while also carrying out strategic closures in underperforming areas, bringing its store total to 336, which it said served as a strong foundation for future growth.

Further investment was funnelled into the more recent launch of a new Peacocks website, which was established as part of a mission to grow customer acquisition and retention. For the year ended February 2023, the company achieved a growth of 40 percent for its e-commerce site.

A comeback after 2021 administration

All formerly owned by Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, EWM, Peacocks and Bonmarché were snapped up in early 2021 by an investment consortium led by Simpson, who had served as EWM’s chief operating officer at the time.

The group had agreed to provide “sufficient working capital” to enable the business to emerge from administration proceedings, which was to be overseen by advisory firm FRP.

The two retailers also welcomed notable growth among their website traffic, EWM seeing sales on its respective site increase 36 percent and Bonmarché’s rising by 17.4 percent.