Frasers Group, the company with an impressive portfolio including Sports Direct, Flannels and more, has reported “strong trading performance” for the year ending 28 April 2024.
The Michael Murray-run retail giant revealed revenues of £5.53 billion, down from £5.85 billion in 2023.
Reported pre-tax profits reached £507 million, falling from £638 million year-on-year. However, adjusted pre-tax profits were up by 13% from £481.8 million to £544.8 million. This aligned with the group’s expectations of profits sitting between £500-£550 million.
Now, on the back of this, Frasers Group shares have jumped 9% or 72p to 893.5p.
Retail revenue increased by 4%, “largely due to the impact of businesses acquired in H2 of FY23”. In addition, much of Frasers’ profit was hinged on the success of Sports Direct, which continued to achieve year-on-year revenue and gross profit growth.
The group said that the year saw the “continued successful execution” of its Elevation Strategy and strengthened brand partnerships. This includes the onboarding of new acquisitions including The North Face, On and Columbia.
Michael Murray, Chief Executive of Frasers Group, said: “This has been a break-out year for building Frasers’ future growth. As well as delivering a strong trading performance, particularly from Sports Direct, we made significant progress with our Elevation Strategy.
“We expanded our retail ecosystem, establishing valuable partnerships with new brands. Our brand relationships have never been stronger, giving us invaluable support as we continue the international expansion of our business. We invested in group-wide operational efficiencies in warehouse automation and digital infrastructure, which we expect to yield a tangible impact as early as FY25. And we generated new growth opportunities with the rollout of Frasers Plus, including recently signing our first third-party partner in THG.”
“I’m really proud of what we have achieved at Frasers this year and would like to thank all colleagues for their continued hard work and our brand partners for their support.
“We have built a lot of momentum this year and are entering the new financial year with many exciting growth opportunities ahead of us, which we will continue to invest in for the long-term benefit of the group.”
Looking ahead to FY25, the company is “confident” that its strategy will continue to drive strong trading, bolstered by a Summer of Sport and the integration of recent acquisitions. It expects to reduce the like-for-like gross inventory balance by 5% to 15% by the end of the calendar year.
Murray added: “We’re continuing to build a diversified and global retail business for sustained multi-year growth and expect to achieve another significant increase in FY25 APBT in the range £575m-£625m.”
