Bumper online sales and the late arrival of cold weather helped SuperGroup defy expectations as sales rebounded over Christmas.
Shares in the fashion brand shot up 10.4% to 896p as it said coats, jackets and knitwear flew off the shelves from Boxing Day onwards, despite a slow start to the season which forced a profit warning in October.
Like-for-like sales for the 11 weeks to 10 January were up 12.4%.
The retailer’s turnaround in fortunes was in stark contrast to Game Digital. Its shares dived 30% after the retailer issued a profits warning late on Tuesday as a result of Black Friday discounting.
Nick Bubb, an independent retail analyst, expressed astonishment at the shock announcement by the retailer, which was one of the best performers of all the companies floated on the main stock market last year. “The nub of the problem is that Christmas was very competitive,” he said.
Game said profits would be more than £10m below expectations as it appeared to have lost out in a price war with rivals such as Argos.
Among other retailers reporting their Christmas fortunes online grocer Ocado said retail sales in December rose 14.8% year-on-year, in line with a rise of 14.9% in the previous quarter. That compares to falling sales at the major supermarkets, such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, which are all suffering amid rapid changes in shopping habits.
Ocado, which delivers products supplied by Waitrose and also runs Morrisons’ year-old grocery website, is benefiting as shoppers switch to home deliveries.
At SuperGroup new chief executive Euan Sutherland said record online sales were a result of customers being confident they would get their orders delivered, despite widely publicised problems at rival stores, particularly over the Black Friday promotional weekend: “Our upgraded infrastructure was tested to the full by Black Friday and in the busy lead-up to Christmas and has proven to be resilient and effective,” he said.
Analysts said SuperGroup’s improving performance was helped by comparisons against weak trading figures last year. But sales improved across Europe, including the UK, and in both menswear and womenswear.
Freddie George, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, said: “We continue to believe the company has a great opportunity to develop the business overseas.” He upgraded his annual profit forecast for the retailer by £1.5m to £63.5m, despite the recent collapse into administration of one of SuperGroup’s wholesale customers, Bank.
