Full year results from continuing operations:
Total group revenue flat at £818.0m (FY14: £818.9m)
Operating profit excluding exceptionals -11.9% to £93.8m (FY14: £106.5m)
Statutory operating profit £81.2m (FY14: £106.5m)
Profit before tax (excluding exceptionals and FX movement) -13.4% to £86.2m (FY14: £99.6m)
Statutory Profit before tax -21.2% to £76.3m (FY14: £96.8m)
Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations 20.49p (FY14: 27.74p)
Statutory earnings per share from continuing operations 21.23p (FY14: 26.95p)
Final dividend flat year on year at 8.56p, taking full year dividend to 14.23p, also unchanged on last year
Net debt £246.6m (FY14: £213.7m)
Guidance for FY15/16 unchanged
Operational highlights:
Period of significant modernisation of business, adopting a digital-first mindset
Change programme and weak Autumn trading impacted profit performance
Encouraging progress on some key forward indicators
o Online sales 59% in FY15 and 62% in Q4
o High level of customer satisfaction
o Active customer base +2.4%
o JD Williams relaunch on track, with double-digit increase in new customer orders
Angela Spindler, Chief Executive, said:
"This last year was an important one for our company. We are comprehensively modernising the business in terms of organisation, capability, infrastructure and processes to adopt a digital-first mindset and to ensure that we are fit for the future of retail. We are improving our product proposition and competitive position by investing in quality and price. We have also re-phased our seasonal product and marketing to better reflect consumer spending patterns and to bring the business into line with a modern clothing retail model.
"Step-changing the way the business operates and goes to market in some key areas proved more disruptive than anticipated and this, combined with a weak Autumn trading period across the sector, led to a profit performance below expectations. We are, however, improving the sustainability of future profit growth and look to the year ahead with confidence."
