Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia fashion group has posted a small increase in like-for-like sales and operating profits for the year to September 1.
Arcadia, which owns fashion chains Topshop, Topman, Burton Menswear, Wallis, Dorothy Perkins, Evans and Miss Selfridge reported like-for-like sales up 2.1 per cent, while gross margin rose 0.2 per cent over the 12-month period.
Arcadia’s like-for-like sales inched up 1 per cent for the first seven weeks from September 1.
Total sales jumped 5.2 per cent to£1.86 billion and its operating profit climbed 1.6 per cent to£293.3 million from£288.6 million a year earlier. But it is not paying a dividend for the second year running.
Green said: “I believe the small improvement in profitability and the 2 per cent like-for-like sales growth represent a very creditable performance, when set against a background of one of the worst ‘non-summers’ in many years.
“In spite of the poor weather, the brands continue to be managed in an efficient way. Their focus has been on maintaining clean stock positions by working with our extensive supplier base, to ensure speed to market and newness of product for the customer.”
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