Sosandar H1 turnover increases by 52 percent

Online women’s fashion brand Sosandar, has reported revenue of 4.3 million pounds in the first half of this fiscal, a 52 percent increase against the same period in the prior year, with a substantial improvement in EBITDA loss. The company said that sales momentum seen in Q1 and July continued in August and September with revenue increase of 7 percent in July to August and 54 percent August to September periods. The company managed to maintain a strong gross margin of 52.3 percent compared to 53.6 percent in the first half of 2019, with the small reduction year on year being driven by actions in the early weeks of lockdown to address the impact of Covid-19.

Commenting on the trading update, Ali Hall and Julie Lavington, the company’s Co-CEOs said in a statement: “We are delighted to have continued to demonstrate the strength of the Sosandar brand and agility of our model, growing our sales, product range and customer base during such a challenging trading environment. Our customer database, and their loyalty, is the backbone of our performance. Following the successful re-introduction of TV advertising and brochure activity in September, we will continue cautiously investing in marketing to underpin customer database growth throughout October and November.”

The company added that performance in August, which is usually a seasonally quiet month, was driven by a high proportion of repeat orders with strong demand for full price high summer products. In addition, the company successfully launched with both John Lewis and Next on their website platforms during August. In September, Sosandar said, return to a limited amount of advertising on TV, as well as investment in direct mail brochures, to complement existing social and email marketing campaigns, resulted in revenue increase of 54 percent from the prior month and, despite marketing spend being half what it was the prior year, revenue grew by 36 percent year on year.

Picture:Facebook/Sosandar