Asos sales decline again as it appoints new chief finance officer

The fashion retailer saw sales decline 18% in the 26 weeks to March 3, 2024, while adjusted group revenue fell year-on-year from £1.83bn to £1.5bn.

Asos posted a slight improvement in loss before tax, as this half-year trading period saw a £270m loss, up from £290m from the same period last year.

Sales in the UK fell 16% year-on-year against a “difficult consumer backdrop” due to cost-of-living challenges that have impacted the “younger Asos customer demographic”.

The group said it is seeing “strong progress” on its ‘Back to Fashion’ strategic priorities to make Asos “faster, more agile and more profitable” and delivered its strongest H1 cash performance since 2017 at £240m.

Despite continued losses and sales decline, Asos’ guidance for the full year is unchanged as it is “committed to accelerating to an 8% EBITDA margin in the mid-term”.

It expects to see sales decline of 5% to 15% for the full year, but a return to growth in the final quarter.

Asos chief executive José Antonio Ramos Calamonte said: “At the beginning of this year we explained that FY24 would be a year of continued transformation for Asos as we take the necessary actions to deliver a more profitable and cash-generative business. 

“Under our Back to Fashion strategy, we set out three priorities for the year: to offer the best and most relevant product; to strengthen our relationship with customers; and to reduce our cost to serve.

“We have delivered on each of these in the first half of the year, including right-sizing our stock ahead of target to drive our best first-half cash performance since 2017 and seeing excellent results in our test-and-react model, which is growing at pace. 

“Asos is becoming a faster and more agile business and we are reiterating our guidance for the full year as we lay the foundations for sustainably profitable growth in FY25 and beyond.”

New appointments

Asos also announced the appointment of Dave Murray as chief financial officer and executive director.

Murray will join on April 29 with interim CFO Sean Glithero leaving the company.

Murray has over two decades of experience across finance roles in the retail and ecommerce industry and spent periods at Sainsbury’s and Amazon before most recently being the finance boss at Matches.

Ramos Calamonte said: “I am delighted to be welcoming Dave to the management team. His wide-ranging experience in the retail sector, notably in senior finance positions in several major retail, fashion and ecommerce businesses, will make him a valuable partner in the next phase of Asos’ journey to becoming a faster, more agile and more profitable business.

“I would also like to express my sincerest appreciation to Sean who has played a pivotal role in driving change across Asos to make it significantly stronger and more resilient than it was a year ago. Sean will remain with the business until a full handover is complete and we wish him the very best for the future.”