MySale posts £5.2m full-year loss but reports second-half uplift

MySale, which is backed by Sir Philip Green and runs sites in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and the UK, said sales during the year to June 30 2015 had increased 5% to Aus$235.9m (£109.2m).

Carl Jackson, chief executive of MySale Group, put the loss down to a “number of tactical issues with the product mix, excessive postage-led promotions and too much marketing budget spent on non-digital channels”.

He said these all contributed to lower than expected sales growth and reduced gross margins.

While MySale was it in the red during the first year, the etailer said trade had improved in the second half of the year with underlying EBITDA of Aus$200,000 (£92,000) after the company took “swift corrective action” to fix the above issues that had dented profits earlier in the year.

The retailer said it has 811,000 active members, up from 796,000 on the previous year. It said mobile sales now account for 55% of orders, an increase from 51%.

Refocusing resources

Jackson said: “Following a year of some challenges in FY2015 we look forward with optimism to FY2016. The group undertook a number of actions at the time of our half year that refocused all our resources on our core business. This delivered a return to modest profitability in the second half and we continue to focus on these initiatives in the financial year to June 2016.

‘’MySale has a number of unique strengths with our international inventory sourcing capability, robust logistics and technology platform; substantial member base and experienced senior team and the Group is focused on leveraging these strengths to develop the business for all stakeholders.”

He added that the company’s aim for the 2016 financial year was to continue on the path of improving underlying EBITDA.

“The group established a profitable path in the second half of FY2015 and it is anticipated this momentum will continue into the first half of the current year. Whilst sales growth is clearly central to this, we are also focused on driving our gross margin higher and carefully controlling our operating costs,” he said.