(Filed Under Financial and General Interest News). Naked Brand Group Limited sales fell in the six months ended July 31, 2018 while its losses jumped dramatically. The company also postponed until 2019 what would have been its first conference call with analysts to discuss the results.

Sales in the half “decreased by 5.1% to NZD$56.8 million, or $38.6 million, compared to NZD$59.8 million, or $40.6 million” for the same period a year before. “Net loss totaled NZD$26.5 million, or $18.07 million” in the half, compared to a loss of NZD$18.42 million, or $12.5 million” in the six months ended July 31, 2017.

Significantly, “gross profit margin as a percentage of revenue decreased to 31.2%” during the period “as compared to approximately 32.7% in the first half” the year before. The company explained, “the reduction in gross margin was caused by increased discounts provided to customers and sub-optimal stock mix due to the vendor supply issue.” The company blamed the lower margins, as well as increased expenses for its increased losses.

CEO Justin Davis-Rice, referring to the recent merger between Naked and Bendon that created the current entity, stated “the first half fiscal 2019 was a very pivotal time for the newly combined company as we integrated both businesses, cleaned up our capital structure and eliminated some divisions in order to position Naked for the next phase of our e-commerce business. While today’s reported financial results reflect a period of transition, we believe the steps taken during this time will position the company for accelerated growth in the new year. We look forward to updating shareholders on these developments and new pending initiatives in early 2019 on our rescheduled conference call.”

The conference call had been announced for December 20th, and Naked blamed the delay until next year on the “timing of key milestones that are now expected to occur in early 2019.”

more Financial and General Interest News >>

Published 12-21-2018 by -