Frasers has reported increased profit despite sales dip in ‘break-out’ year

The group, which owns Sports Direct, Flannels and the Frasers department store among others, reported a fall of 1.3% in retail revenue to £5.53bn for the year.

Frasers said this was due to “planned sales declines in [its businesses] Game UK and Studio Retail, as well as the impact of House of Fraser store closures and a softer luxury market”.

Despite a dip in sales, the retailer posted £544.8m in adjusted profit before tax, which was at the top of its guidance range of between £500m and £550m, while retail profit from trading fell by 0.9% to £738.9m.

During the same period, sales in the retailer’s UK sales division fell by 3.3% to £2.86bn with a strong performance from Sports Direct.

Sales in the group’s premium lifestyle division fell by 1.2% to £1.2bn and international retail sales increased by 3.3% to £1.28bn due to growth from the Sports Direct international business, as well as the acquisition of the MySale business in Australia last year.

Michael Murray, chief executive of Frasers Group, said: “This has been a break-out year for building Frasers’ future growth. As well as delivering a strong trading performance, particularly from Sports Direct, we made significant progress with our Elevation Strategy.

“We expanded our retail ecosystem, establishing valuable partnerships with new brands.

”Our brand relationships have never been stronger, giving us invaluable support as we continue the international expansion of our business.

“We invested in group-wide operational efficiencies in warehouse automation and digital infrastructure, which we expect to yield a tangible impact as early as FY25. And we generated new growth opportunities with the rollout of Frasers Plus, including recently signing our first third-party partner in THG.

”I’m really proud of what we have achieved at Frasers this year and would like to thank all colleagues for their continued hard work and our brand partners for their support.

“Together we are building a resilient, profitable growth retail ecosystem that delivers exceptional value for our partners, consumers and shareholders.

“We have built a lot of momentum this year and are entering the new financial year with many exciting growth opportunities ahead of us, which we will continue to invest in for the long-term benefit of the group.”