Retail tycoon Theo Paphitis’ Boux Avenue fashion and Ryman stationery businesses have notched up full-year earnings increases as improvement strategies paid off, Retail Week can reveal.
Boux Avenue and Ryman are both expected to achieve profit advances in the financial year ending this month. However, home goods stablemate Robert Dyas has experienced tougher trading.
Boux Avenue will deliver EBITDA of at least £4m, “following a particularly strong Christmas and Valentine’s campaign seeing double digit growth”. That follows a return to profitability last year of £0.3m, which will be formally reported at Companies House this week. Ryman is on track for an EBITDA of £3m this year versus £1.9m last year.
Robert Dyas lost £3.4m last year as its stores suffered, although online sales were up. The current year has also been challenging for stores, but “promising green shoots are now appearing”.
Paphitis said Boux Avenue has “come of age” and it is now “a compelling brand in the marketplace”. He told Retail Week: “We have made further progress in the current year, which sees previous investment rewarded by double-digit growth on top of the 6.9% sales growth of the prior year.”
There will be further investment in stores following the opening of a new branch at Manchester’s Arndale and relocations in Liverpool One and the Trafford Centre. Paphitis said: “Buoyant trading is more than justifying the investment made, and we will be seeing further refits over the coming year with Bluewater underway and Westfield London due in the next few weeks. Where we can find the right sites, we will be looking to open more stores.”
At Ryman, there has been a focus on higher margin revenue areas, services such as through its app and Post Offices, and brand partnerships.
The new Ryman Design format is seen as “a proven concept,” and the retailer is on the lookout for further suitable locations on top of the five existing locations.
Paphitis said: “We are in a time where other heritage brands, such as WHSmith, have disappeared from the high street. A stark reminder to high street retailers to remember their purpose and reason to exist and evolve accordingly, especially in a time when the customer is more promiscuous than they have ever been due to online choice. The team has dug deep on a Ryman refocus, and I am delighted to see this pay off.”
While Robert Dyas’ ecommerce sales rose business 11.8% last year, like-for-likes at the 93 stores fell 5%. The retailer has been optimising store space through joint branches with Ryman, and the shop on London’s Strand is shared with a Post Office as well as Ryman. Paphitis aims to increase the number of joint stores “given our success so far”.
Paphitis, who stepped in as interim chief executive of Dyas last summer, said: “We have enhanced our click-and-collect proposition and increased our joint stores with Ryman, while work is continuing to enhance our ranges with our key suppliers. We will focus on using the digital strategy that has worked so successfully with the other brands to drive customers back to stores.”
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