Creative Cornish clothing brand, Seasalt, is pleased to release a trading update for the five-week period to 30th December 2023. Total sales across online, stores and through marketplace partners increased by an impressive 16% versus the same period last year, with every channel setting new records for the Christmas period.
Seasalt stores enjoyed a second consecutive record Christmas, with customers continuing to appreciate the opportunity to experience the Seasalt brand in person and interact with Seasalt’s outstanding store staff. Overall, store revenues were up 17% compared with the same period in 2022.
Online sales also remained strong throughout the Christmas season and came in at 11% above last year’s, another record revenue level. Online trading conditions have been challenging during the last 18 months so it was pleasing to see this channel enjoy positive growth.
Seasalt has formed increasingly important relationships with marketplace partners, including M&S, Next and Zalando, and these have all gone from strength to strength in 2023, resulting in a particularly noteworthy Christmas performance, with sales up 32% on the prior period.
Jon Lewis, Chief Trading Officer, Seasalt Cornwall said: “It is really pleasing to see all three of our principal sales channels perform so well over the festive season. We have a good balance across our channels which helps to provide resilience in difficult trading conditions but also leads to outstanding performance when all three are doing well. The results reflect our customers reaction to new full-price product and a great response to our end-of-season sale.”
Financial results for the year ended January 2023 and expectations for January 2024
The statutory accounts for the year ended January 2023 show strong revenue growth over the previous year, up £22m (23%) to £118m. The store channel enjoyed the bulk of growth with stores up 12% like-for-like on (pre-Covid) 2019 as customers returned to the high street to re-engage with a physical shopping experience. During 2022, the business coped with a number of cost pressures, including increased freight and technology costs, the creation of new jobs to support business expansion and improved salary levels arising from our commitment to the Real Living Wage. Underlying EBITDA for the year (excluding exceptional items and unrealised gains and losses) exceeded £8.5m, up on the year before (£7.9m).
Seasalt continued to enjoy strong revenue growth throughout 2023 and current expectations for the year ending 27th January 2024 are that total revenues will exceed £135m, which would represent growth of 12.5%. All channels have experienced good levels of growth year-to-date with the strongest being stores (up another 10% like-for-like year-to-date over 2022) and partners (up 39% year-on-year). Strong margin improvements and measured cost controls have also lifted profitability with EBITDA for the full year expected to exceed £10m.
Paul Hayes, Chief Executive Officer, Seasalt Cornwall said: “Sales have been strong throughout the key festive trading weeks in 2023 and we’re proud to have been able to build on the success we’ve seen in recent years, despite ongoing external economic challenges. 2024 is set to be a milestone year as we open our first stores in North America and we’re already seeing positive early signs of progress from our international growth over the past year which is giving us confidence for the year ahead.”
