Ted Baker hails e-tail surge as Christmas trading is "good"

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 10, 2018

Ted Baker enjoyed a “good retail performance” over the tough Christmas trading period with the company saying on Wednesday that the eight weeks to January 6 saw retail sales rising 9%, or 10.5% at constant exchange rates.

Like its UK retail peer Superdry, it was helped by a surge in e-tail revenue with e-commerce up as much as 35% (or 36.4% constant currency). The company is now in the happy position (given that e-tail is where the big growth is happening) of online sales making up 30.1% of its total retail turnover.

But the firm also remains focused on expanding its physical retail presence and its store space was 5.9% bigger year-on-year to reach nearly 410,000 sq ft.

That expansion included a new store in Montreal, Canada, further concession openings in Germany and Spain and (with its licence partners) an additional store in each of Malaysia, Mexico and Qatar.

Gross margins were “in line with” its expectations (although it didn’t say what those expectations were) and it expects to end the year “with a clean stock position,” which suggests that the clearance period has also been strong.

CEO Ray Kelvin said that while “external trading conditions are expected to remain challenging in the year ahead, the strength of our brand and business model means that we remain well positioned to continue the long-term development of Ted Baker as a global lifestyle brand.”