Trading Update

RNS Number : 1892O

Sosandar PLC

16 May 2018

 

Date:	16 May 2018
On behalf of:	Sosandar plc ('Sosandar' or 'the Company')
Embargoed until:	0700hrs

Sosandar plc

Trading update

Record revenues and growth across KPIs

Sosandar PLC (AIM: SOS), the online women's fashion brand, is pleased to announce that it expects full year revenue for the year to 31 March 2018 to be no less than £1.34m, with like for like sales for the 6 months ending 31 March 2018 showing a 268% increase against the prior year.

Record monthly revenues were achieved in March 2018, and substantial momentum has continued into the new financial year.

This strong growth reflects the impact of the Company's successful marketing campaigns, increased brand awareness and illustrates the benefits of the investment into a variety of new marketing channels, the most successful of which has been direct mail. Demonstrating the growth in brand awareness, Facebook and Instagram followings have increased by 181% and 888% respectively.

Since the Company's admission to AIM, it has expanded its product range and increased the quantity of stock ordered in commercially proven product lines. Customers have responded well to the unique in-house designs across all categories from dresses, skirts and tops to leather and footwear. Significant margin improvements have been achieved through both the economies of scale from increased order quantities and a higher proportion of sales from product sold at full price. Gross margin for the financial year 2018 is expected to be at 49.3% (37.8% FY2017).

Returns levels are already nearing industry average despite being an early stage business.  While the business continues with high customer acquisition it is anticipated that returns will remain around this level, but longer term efficiencies will be seen as repeat order rates continue to grow and people become used to sizing.

Customers acquired in the last six months are repeat ordering more frequently and with a higher basket size, validating the Company's focus on aggressively targeting customer acquisition and ongoing marketing. The cost of acquiring customers has shown improvement and halved over the last six months. This has been achieved through cost reductions and response rate improvements driven by increased data analytics which has helped to better target new customers. The up front investment in customer acquisition is also building the customer database and growing the level of repeat orders which combined with the cost of acquisition improvements have begun driving bottom line efficiencies.

Growth is being delivered across KPIs as shown below:

	Year ended 31 March 2018		Year ended 31 March 2017*		Change
Sessions	1,467,952		543,340		+ 170%
Number of Orders	31,732		7,003		+ 353%
Conversion Rate	2.16%		1.29%		+ 87bps
Average Order Value	£94.18		£87.22		+ 8%
Returns	44.8%		46.7%		- 4%
New Customers	20,325		5,257		+ 287%
Repeat Orders	11,407		1,746		+ 553%
Customer Database	54,196		6,821		+ 695%
Facebook Followers	37,750		13,430		+ 181%
Instagram	8,299		840		+ 888%

* Representing 7 months of trading from Sosandar's launch in September 2016

Full KPIs will be reported at the Group's Preliminary Results for the year ending 31 March 2018.

Ali Hall and Julie Lavington, Joint CEOs, commented:

"We are delighted with the progress the business has made over the year to 31 March 2018. As a company early in its development, we are focused on increasing brand awareness and new customer acquisition and our KPIs show strong growth in these areas. It is particularly pleasing that we recorded our highest monthly sales figure in March 2018 (which was subsequently beaten by a further 32% growth in April 2018), demonstrating that our business is less seasonal than peers, and the speed at which we are growing.

"Sosandar's unique positioning and affordable, quality products are attracting a growing fanbase of repeat customers, as well as a plethora of celebrities and fashion influencers who choose to wear our clothes repeatedly. We are constantly refining the efficiency of our marketing spend, and beginning to benefit from improved margins as we increase our minimum order size. This momentum has continued into the new financial year, and we look forward to updating the market further at full year results."

Enquiries

Sosandar plc	www.sosandar.com
Julie Lavington / Ali Hall, Joint CEOs	c/o Alma PR
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nominated Adviser)	[phone]
Sandy Jamieson / Liam Murray / Richard Nash
Turner Pope Investments (TPI) Limited (Broker)	[phone]
Ben Turner / James Pope
Alma PR Limited (Financial PR)	[phone]
Rebecca Sanders-Hewett / Josh Royston / Susie Hudson / Sam Modlin	[e-mail]

About Sosandar PLC

Sosandar is an online womenswear brand, specifically targeted at a generation of women who have graduated from throwaway fashion and are looking for quality, affordable clothing with a premium, trend-led aesthetic. This is a section of the market that is currently being underserved.

Sosandar was launched in September 2016. The Sosandar business model is built around using trend-led, exclusive designs produced in-house and then manufactured using a variety of global suppliers. Sosandar caters for a growing market of fashion conscious women, while utilising an outsourced logistics provider that can support its planned growth over the coming years.

Sosandar's founders are Ali Hall and Julie Lavington, who previously launched and ran high street fashion magazine Look, as editor and publishing director respectively. They have a combined experience of over 35 years in the fashion industry, including in the design, manufacture and sale of fashion ranges for some of the UK's high street retailers, including Debenhams, Office, Oasis and JD Williams.

More information is available at www.sosandar-ir.com

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

 

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