Hotel Chocolat and Boohoo deliver rollicking results

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Boohoo and Hotel Chocolat bucked mixed retail fortunes today with a duo of doubled profit or revenue rises in their respective financial updates.

Young fashion etailer boohoo posted a 41% jump in pre-tax profits in its interim results bolstered by revenue more than doubling to £262.9m.

The online retailer also doubled its expectations of recently acquired fashion brand PrettyLittleThing’s full-year sales surge to 150%.

Boohoo’s US expansion continued at pace, with sales Stateside jumping 160% year on year.

The fast-growing online fashion player’s bets appear to be paying off so far – and it’s not the only retailer that can say so today, as Hotel Chocolat also posted a gangbuster set of results.

The specialist retailer, which delivered a 100% jump in full-year pre-tax profits, told Retail Week it is planning to launch a new subscription offer early next year.

The retailer is also planning to drive further expansion in Asia following a successful launch of two franchise-operated stores in Hong Kong.

A fast-fashion etailer and bricks-and-mortar chocolatier wouldn’t, at first glance, appear to have much common ground – but for both, a healthy appetite for innovation and expansion have delivered robust results.

On a less positive note, embattled House of Fraser has lost chief customer officer David Walmsley after just over a year in the role, although it has appointed a chief marketing officer in the form of Doddle’s chief customer officer Paddy Earnshaw.

Quote of the day

“Whether the Zalando approach will prove to be fruitful or not, it’s fair to say they respect their start-up roots and are at least open to trying something new.

“It would be great to see our home-grown retailers doing the same thing (I mean really doing it) rather than planning to or talking about doing it, don’t you think?”

– Grabble co-founder and Retail Week columnist Dan Murray