Matalan cut its full-year losses despite a dip in sales as the value giant cut down on discounting.
Pre-tax losses before tax narrowed 44% to £60m as underlying profitability improved.
For full year ending February 24, t he fashion and home retailer‘s adjusted EBITDA surged 92% to £53m, driven by an improved gross margin and operational efficiencies.
Total revenue and like-for-likes fell 6% but gross margin rose by 8%, thanks to better buying strategies, a value creation programme, enhanced product margins, and reduced discounting.
Its full-price sales mix increased to 70%, up 4 percentage points from the previous year.
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Matalan chief executive Jo Whitfield said: “In the last year we have kick started the transformation of Matalan against a very challenging backdrop, resetting the foundations of the business. We delivered a significant increase in underlying profit as a result of our clear focus on growing full price sales and tight cost control.”
As it steams ahead with its “ambitious” business transformation, earlier this year, the retailer hired a host of new senior leaders to the company.
Former Boden director of product management and experience David Seeby became director of online, former Co-op director of strategic planning and solutions John O’Driscoll was appointed director of strategy, while ex-Sainsbury’s head of womenswear buying Toni Salters-Warner and former Primark head of design Jo Murphy took on the same roles at the retailer.
Matalan also unveiled its new brand platform back in March alongside launching 35 new third-party brands and extending its online size ranges to offer more choices and styles.
Whitfield added: “With a new leadership team in place, we have put the customer back at the heart of Matalan to make sure we become top of their list of go-to value retailers. We have reset our value proposition, acted decisively to improve and strengthen our online performance and worked to improve our in-store execution.
“Looking ahead, we are determined to deliver better value, more choice and improved style for all our customers. It is still early days in our transformation, and while we have much more to do, with challenges ahead, we are pleased that the actions we have already taken are having an impact as we build a stronger, more modern Matalan.”
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