The US retail group Urban Outfitters Inc. set a new sales record in the third quarter of the 2022/23 financial year. However, the profit was not even half as high as in the same period last year. This emerges from an interim report that the company published on Monday evening.
Accordingly, group sales in the months of August to October reached a level of 1.18 billion US dollars (1.14 billion euros) and exceeded the corresponding level of the previous year by 3.9 percent. The retail chain Urban Outfitters had to accept a drop in sales of 11.6 percent to 367.6 million US dollars, while the other divisions were able to increase.
Anthropologie Group’s revenues increased 12.2 percent to $484.2 million and Free People Group’s revenues increased 5.9 percent to $280.7 million. In the Nuuly segment, which manages the group’s fashion rental service and second-hand business, sales of USD 35.3 million were almost three times higher than in the same quarter last year (+178.1 percent), the food service Division Menus & Venues achieved an increase of 18.6 percent to 7.66 million US dollars.
Despite the increase in sales, profits declined significantly as higher freight costs, deeper discounts and increased spending on staff and marketing weighed on margins. The operating result fell compared to the same quarter last year by 50.5 percent to 57.3 million US dollars. Net profit even shrank by 58.1 percent to 37.2 million US dollars (36.2 million euros) and thus missed market expectations.