Business

Asos details growth plans after last month’s shock CEO departure

Fast-fashion retailer plans to accelerate growth in EU and the US

Online fashion retailer Asos laid out how it planned to meet its medium- and long-term profitability goals. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

Wed Nov 10 2021 - 16:42

Online fashion retailer Asos laid out how it planned to meet its medium and long term profitability goals, seeking to restore investor confidence after it abruptly parted ways with its CEO last month and warned on 2022 profit.

Shares in the fast-fashion specialist tumbled in October when it said 2022 profit could fall by over 40 per cent due to supply chain pressures and consumers returning to their pre-pandemic behaviour.

The group said Nick Beighton, chief executive for six years, was leaving immediately, a shock which rattled shareholders.

At a capital markets day on Wednesday, finance chief Mat Dunn, who is now leading the business having added the chief operating officer role to his remit, told investors that sales and profitability will rise in the future.

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“Our plan will ensure that we fully leverage our strong, scalable global platform to deliver our ambitions,” he said in a statement.

The fast-fashion specialist said it aimed to "relentlessly" improve its fashion credentials, make partner brand availability better, extend product range into face and body and accelerate growth in the European Union and the United States.

Over the next three to four years, Asos said it is targeting £7 billion (€8.2 billion) of sales with an Ebit margin of at least 4 per cent, helped by a forecast doubling of Asos in the EU and US.

Beyond that it said that it said that its plans support an Ebit margin of at least 8 per cent in the long term, helped by ongoing cost and scale efficiencies as it expands. Asos said it currently delivers Ebit margins of 7 per cent in the UK, 2 per cent in Europe, 6 per cent in the US and 4 per cent in the rest of the world. – Reuters

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