Seasalt: Cornish clothing brand bucks retail gloom over festive season
Cornish retailer Seasalt has defied the despondent British high street and reported a significant uptick in sales over the Christmas season despite significant cost pressures.
Total sales across online, stores, and marketplace partners like M&S increased by 10 per cent compared to last year in the last five weeks of the year, with every channel setting new records for the Christmas period, the company said.
The Falmouth-based firm is known for its sustainable practices, quality craftsmanship, and commitment to Cornish heritage.
Chief Paul Hayes said sales at Seasalt, which operates 76 stores across the UK, had been strong “in spite of” the current economic environment and decline in high street footfall across the UK.
Overall, store revenues were up three per cent compared with the same period in 2023, a marked contrast to how the average high street store fared this Christmas – insolvency experts BDO put high street sales growth at an anaemic 0.1 per cent during December.
In yet another warning for the UK high street, Hayes added that he expected cost pressures to be “significant” in the coming months, particularly in light of the Chancellor’s Autumn budget statement, “necessitating a heightened focus on cost management in order to drive profitable growth”.
High street bellwether Next made a similar statement this morning on costs, telling customers that prices would rise by one per cent over the coming year to help the retailer cope with an extra £67m in its wage bill.
But like Next, Seasalt has benefited from pivoting away from the UK and toward an ambitious international sales strategy.
It has partnered with Nordstrom in the US and opened its first store in Falmouth, Massachusetts, just last September.
The B-corp accredited company said that in the year to date, 12 per cent of sales were in international markets. It plans to open at least two more stores in the US next year: the first at The Grove in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, in March, followed by a location at Market Square in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in May.
Hayes said the company will “continue to progress our expansion strategy for 2025, including our store opening programme, both in the UK and the US, and develop our strategic partnerships, putting us in the best possible position to realise our growth ambitions for the year ahead.”