Very Group returns to half-year profit despite sales decline
Very Group returned to making a half-year profit during the final six months of 2024 despite a fall in sales.
The Merseyside-headquartered business, which includes Littlewoods, has reported a pre-tax profit of £6.1m for the period to 28 December 2024.
The profit comes after Very Group fell to a pre-tax loss of £2m during the same six months in 2023.
However, the half-year results also show its total revenue declined from £1.22bn to £1.17bn over the period.
In its most recent full-year, Very Group reported a revenue of £2.12bn and a pre-tax loss of £15.8m.
Very Group is owned by the billionaire Barclay family and chaired by former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.
The group said: “As expected, the market in Q2 FY25 continued to prove challenging given ongoing economic pressures.”
It added: “As we continue to focus on higher margin sales and cost discipline through the remainder of FY25, we expect to see a continued strengthening of the profitability of our business.”
The Very brand’s revenue fell by 3.2 per cent to £1.02bn while Littlewoods’ sales fell by 15.3 per cent to £109.2m.
Nike hits Very UK sales
Very UK’s largest category, electrical, saw its sales fall by 4.5 per cent “as a result of annualising against a quarter which included significant gaming product releases”.
It added: “Toys, gifts and beauty also annualised against a year in which we heavily invested in the category, however performed strongly over our peak period.
“As such, the category declined slightly by 0.6 per cent year on year, and within this we achieved growth of 3.1 per cent in toys and 6.3 per cent in beauty.
“The home category is of strategic importance as we prioritise higher margin sales, and in Q2 we saw growth of 7.3 per cent compared to the prior year.
“This was largely due to an increase in sales of home accessories, textiles and upholstery.”
Very added that fashion and sports fell by six per cent “in a heavily discounted and contracting market”.
But it added that excluding the impact of Nike, it saw a growth of 1.7 per cent in fashion and 18.4 per cent in sport.