ASOS chief executive Nick Beighton steps down with immediate effect
ASOS chief executive Nick Beighton is stepping down with immediate effect, the company just confirmed.
“A search for his successor will begin shortly,” ASOS said in a statement.
In the meantime, Mat Dunn, currently Chief Financial Officer, will become COO of ASOS and lead the business on a day-to-day basis with effect from today.
Katy Mecklenburgh, currently Director of Group Finance at ASOS, will become Interim Chief Financial Officer.
Ian Dyson, currently ASOS’s Senior Independent Non-Executive Director, will become Chairman, succeeding Adam Crozier, whose decision to leave ASOS was recently announced.
At the same time Jørgen Lindemann, who until recently, was a non-executive director of Zalando, is joining the Board as a Non-Executive Director. He will join the Board from 1 November 2021.
The news came as ASOS revealed strong financial results for the year ending August 2021 and announced plans to up revenue to £7bn.
Gross profit soared by 15 per cent to stand at £1.8bn as successive Covid lockdowns provided a boost to online shopping with the company’s customer base growing by 13 per cent to 26.4m.
ASOS has set its sights on capturing an even larger share of an estimated £430bn addressable market of 20-somethings in the UK, US and EU with plans to increase revenue to £7bn over the next three to four years.
The company saw its strongest sales growth in the US and UK, with sales up 32 and 29 per cent respectively.
Despite bumper growth, the company was knocked back by supply chain issues which had a particular impact on the EU where sales climbed by a lacklustre four per cent. Margins were also impacted by elevated freight & Brexit-related duty costs as well as an unpredictable exchange rates.
Looking ahead ASOS predicted that in FY22 profit before tax will fall from £177m to between £110m and £140m as the government scales back Covid relief for companies.
The results come as ASOS chief executive Nick Beighton announced he would be stepping down with immediate effect with the search for a new CEO now underway.