Up-to-date coverage of the latest events in UK retail.

7:43am Global Fashion Group revenue soars in first quarter

Fashion etailer Global Fashion Group has seen its revenue soar in the first quarter of the financial year, as it continues to make progress towards breaking-even. 

The business, which operates four ecommerce sites in Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – including Russia and Ukraine – said its revenues grew 15.1% year-on-year to €261 million (£225m). 

Net merchandise value for the quarter also spiked at €341 million (£294m), an increase of 22%.

In terms of adjusted EBITDA, the etailer made a loss of €25.2m (£21.2m) or 9.8% - which was an improvement of 1.9 percentage points year-on-year. 

Co-chief executives Christoph Barchewitz and Patrick Schmidt, said: “It has been a quarter of strong growth for GFG. We continue to build our online platform for fashion & lifestyle brands to access growth markets and now have over 10,000 brand partnerships.

“We are seeing strong growth in Active Customers as structural adoption of mobile and e-commerce continues across our markets. Our customers are also buying more, and more often, as we use technology and our unique distribution network to make buying fashion online a frictionless part of every-day life. We continue to invest in the overall customer experience and our operational infrastructure to underpin our continued growth and progress to profitability.” 

7:01am Start-up florist announced as new Ocado supplier

A six-year-old florist start-up has replaced Interflora as supplier for online grocer Ocado, according to the Sunday Times. 

Bloom and Wild, co-founded in 2013 by Aaron Gelbard and Ben Stanway, will launch a new range of flowers to be delivered through Ocado. The tie-up represents a change in startegy for the business, which previously sold direct to customers online. 

Gelbard said: ”It is a big step for us. About 90% of our sales are for gifting, but expect Ocado shoppers to be buying from their own homes”. 

Bloom and Wild received £15m of private equity investment from Piper last year.