Asos scores record results

Asos saw record sales and profits for the year ended March 31

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Asos saw pre-tax profit rise 117% to £7.3 million on sales up 90% to £81m for the year ended March 31. 

Asos said the strong results were boosted by investment in new management, marketing, systems and warehousing, which enabled the business to expand and improve product ranges and cope with a 60% increase in order volumes.

Asos retail sales rose 90% to £71.6m for the period. It also recorded a 89% increase to £1.2m in third party revenues which includes on-site advertising, marketing inserts into parcels and advertising in the Asos magazine.

Asos saw retail sales margin rise from 44.3% to 47.6% driven by better stock management and improved terms with suppliers.

Asos sales have continued strongly with a rise of 95% for the 13 weeks ended June 27.

Asos chief executive Nick Robertson said: "Sales grew 90% for the year ending March 2008, and we have now achieved compound annual growth of over 75% per year for the last four years. Profits (before tax) for the year ending March 2008 grew by 117%. Both have been achieved on a purely organic basis."

Robertson added: "Whilst the macro economic conditions appear to be deteriorating, I believe we have, and will continue to benefit from the significant migration to online shopping, especially amongst our core customer base. This is reflected in the record number of unique visitors we now receive to the website. In May 2008 we had 3.4 million unique visitors, a 60% increase year on year."

Asos said its most significant development this year would be the launch of its branded clearance section Asos Red, as reported by Drapers June 14.

Asos now has 1.65m registered users.