Hush has strong year, eyes set on future expansion

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 29, 2020

Womenswear brand Hush released its results for the year to the end of March on Thursday and said it was pleased with its performance, particularly taking into account the impact of the pandemic towards the end of the period. 

The company, which sells through its own website, through John Lewis concessions and via selected pop-up stores, said investments made in previous years in marketing and staff continued to benefit its sales growth as revenue rose 16% to £47 million. The firm’s gross profit rose 5% to £18.67 million.

That strong sales growth was seen across both its own retail channel and its concessions channel, and it also reflected higher brand awareness with its customer database growing by 26% and the company opening additional concessions.

All of that's good news of course, but operating profit still fell 9% to £4.2 million, although this wasn't necessarily a negative as it was a result of continued investment in people and technology platforms to drive its future growth. Post-tax profit dropped to £3.438 million from £3.791 million.

So what effect did the pandemic have on its business at the end of the financial year? Without giving any figures, it said it saw “an immediate impact to March trading” as its temporary pop-up stores and concessions were forced to close. However, its primary online retail channel “continued to trade strongly” and all concessions were reopened by the end of July. 

The company has had new investors on board since late March when True Capital bought a majority interest in the business. Hush said this would support it as it looks to grow into new channels and markets.