Tom Tailor Group an international fashion and lifestyle company offering fashionable casual wear and accessories posted a 4.5% hike in sales to reach EUR 425.2 million in the period January to June 2014 against EUR 407.0 million in the corresponding period.
Growth was driven particularly by Tom Tailor brands, whose sales rose 11.0% to EUR 271.4 million against EUR 244.5 million, coming from gains across all sales channels.
Bonita contributed EUR 153.8 million to group sales in the first six months of 2014 compared to EUR 162.5 million in the first half of 2013.
Tom Tailor Group posted EBITDA of EUR 29.3 million, as compared with EUR 17.3 million in the prior-year period, which is a rise of 69.4%. Recurring EBITDA increased by 18.2% to EUR 30.5 million against EUR 25.8 million.
The main driver behind the Group's strong sales growth was Tom Tailor brand. In the retail segment, the brand's sales increased by 14.8% to EUR 123.8 million against EUR 107.8 million. Online sales also surged 19.3% to EUR 22.1 million compared to EUR 18.5 million.
The Tom Tailor wholesale segment sales went up by 8.0% in the reporting period to EUR 147.6 million against EUR 136.7 million, benefiting from strong demand from major customers. Moreover, Tom Tailor increased the number of shop-in-shops by 139 since the beginning of the year to 2,408, while number of franchise stores increased by two to 199.
Bonita generated sales of EUR 153.8 million in the first half of the year when compared with EUR 162.5 million in the same period of 2013. The decline is primarily a reflection of the strategic decision to reduce the number of sales promotions significantly to focus on improving the quality of Bonita's sales in the long term. On a like-for-like basis, sales at Bonita were down 8.7%.
In the first half of the year, gross profit margin of Tom Tailor Group was up 2.4 percentage points to 58.6% against 56.2%. Tom Tailor Group attributed this improvement to increase in gross margin at Bonita due to the reduction in promotions and the improved product content as well as the pooling of additional procurement volumes in its own Tom Tailor sourcing company in Asia.
Reported EBITDA for the first six months of the year jumped by 69.4% to EUR 29.3 million compared to EUR 17.3 million. This strong year-on-year growth was attributed to the favourable business development as well as completed integration of Bonita in 2013.
Cash flow from operating activities rose by EUR 2.2 million in the first half of the year to EUR 6.7 million from EUR 4.5 million. This hike and the company's restrictive approach to investment, geared to profitability, resulted in a substantial EUR 9.4 million increase in free
Tom Tailor was able to bring down its net losses for the first six months of 2014 to EUR 0.3 million from net loss of EUR 3.4 million in the same period of 2013.
