The Very Group, which operates digital retailers Very and Littlewoods, saw revenue growth in Very UK despite losses elsewhere, over the year ended 29th June 2024.
Very UK revenue increased +0.7% to £1.84b, while group revenue declined -1.0% to £2.13b. The underlying retail performance was ahead of the online non-food retail market, says the retailer, and delivered growth in market share for Very UK. Top-line performance includes strong Very Finance revenue growth of +3.1% to £435.0m.
Resilient top-line and careful cost management saw pre-exceptional operating profit grow +17.1% to £218.3m, its highest level since FY19, with operating costs as a percentage of revenue reaching the lowest the group has ever achieved at 23.2%, despite inflationary pressures. EBITDA grew +8.4% to £267.6m.
The group continued to deliver against its strategic pillars, including in the ongoing replatforming to Very's cloud-based Skyscape platform, introducing a new app for Very Ireland customers, and launching a new brand marketing campaign.
Customer experience improvements helped to deliver the group’s best-ever net promoter score, at 40 (+4).
Despite poor weather impacting garden sales via the Very website (-16.5%), Very only saw a slight decline in its Home category (-0.7%), reflecting resilience in the market. The retailer saw growth in nursery (+15.2%) and beds (+6.2%), but this was offset by declines in garden, upholstery (-5.1%) and home textiles (-2.7%).
Robbie Feather, CEO at The Very Group, comments: “Our unique business model, combining multicategory digital retail with flexible ways to pay, is more relevant than ever for our customers.
"In a challenging environment, our results reflect a resilient retail performance that remained ahead of the UK online non-food market, as well as a continued strong Very Finance performance. This top-line resilience, coupled with our continual focus on strong cost management, has driven robust earnings growth in the year.
“We can look back on our FY24 performance with pride and I am confident that we have a great platform on which to build further.”
The group continued to make progress with its multi-year tech investment roadmap, moving towards a more flexible, cloud-based architecture, including ongoing migration to the group’s new user-centric ecommerce platform, Skyscape, and the rollout of AI-powered product discovery across the Very website and app.
