The British fast fashion provider Quiz Plc was able to significantly improve its sales and operating result in the 2022/23 financial year. In the first quarter of the current year, however, the company had to accept a severe setback due to the unfavorable general conditions. The share price immediately fell by more than 20 percent after the current figures were published on Wednesday.
The clothing retailer had already announced in mid-April that sales in the 2022/23 financial year, which ended at the end of March, had increased by 17.0 percent to 91.7 million pounds sterling (107.1 million euros).
The operating result also increased sharply: As the company reported on Wednesday, the operating profit amounted to 2.46 million British pounds, more than twice as high as in the previous year, when it was only 0.9 million British pounds (+169.9 percent). Due to higher tax burdens, the reported net profit was 2.04 million pounds sterling (2.38 million euros) and thus roughly at the level of the previous year (-0.6 percent).
In the first few months of the current 2023/24 financial year, however, Quiz was unable to maintain the upward trend. According to the company, sales of 23.2 million pounds sterling were 15 percent below the level of the same period last year.
In addition to the high comparative figure, management blamed “the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty and inflationary pressures” for the sharp decline. It also acknowledged that conditions remained “challenging” in the second quarter. The clothing retailer explained that it can currently be assumed that pre-tax profits for the entire financial year will stagnate compared to the previous year, triggering the slide in the price of its shares.