Farfetch records first profit after 12 years

The luxury fashion platform recorded revenues up 64% year on year to $1.7bn (£1.2bn) in the year to December 31, aided by a bumper fourth quarter where sales rose 41% year on year to $540m (£389m).

Farfetch also reported gross merchandise value grew 49% compared with 2019, exceeding $3bn.

Most notably, it registered its first-ever quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA, reaching $10m (£7m) in the fourth quarter, compared to an $18m (£13m) decline in the same period in 2019.

Throughout the year, Farfetch has also been making commitments to sustainability, including slashing carbon from its supply chain by 12% in a bid to become climate positive by 2030.

Founder, chair and chief executive José Neves said: “2020 put the Farfetch platform to the test, but thanks to our robust capabilities, resilient operations and utmost perseverance from our more than 5,000 Farfetchers, we rose to the challenge and enabled our nearly 1,400 marketplace sellers and Farfetch Platform Solutions clients to continually serve millions of luxury consumers across the globe.

“We cemented our leadership as the largest global online destination for luxury fashion, accelerated our Chapter 2 initiatives with strategic partnerships advancing our position to be the global platform for the luxury industry, and demonstrated the scale and attractiveness of our business model as we achieved the key milestone of adjusted EBITDA profitability in the fourth quarter.

“As we enter 2021, I am more energised than ever by the prospects of leveraging our incredible achievements to date and our unique platform capabilities to go after the significant growth opportunities we see in our vision to be a digital enabler connecting the creators, curators and consumers of the global luxury industry, both online and offline – a nearly $300bn opportunity we remain laser-focused on and plan to continue investing behind to deliver significant value over the long term.”