Sosandar makes “substantial progress” towards first stores
Sosandar has made “substantial progress” towards opening its first stores, with the womenswear retailer having identified a number of “top tier” locations.
The retailer said its primary focus is ensuring that Sosandar stores are situated in “affluent, thriving” locations where the brand over-indexes.
Sosandar said the timings of the first openings will be determined by its ‘right price, right location’ approach.
The company added that it is on track to execute its store roll-out as expected.
In December, Sosandar said it had identified target locations for its first stores.
This comes as the retailer releases a full year trading update for the financial year ending 31 March 2024, a period during which it recorded a revenue of £46.3m, a year-on-year increase of 9%. Sosandar said during the period that trading was broadly in line with expectations.
The retailer – which operates mainly through its website – said it has been one of the top seeling brands with third-party operators, such as M&S and Next. Last year, Sosandar also reached an agreement to sell a curated collection of its products through Sainsbury’s supermarkets.
Ali Hall and Julie Lavington, Sosandar co-CEOs, said: “We have delivered a robust financial performance for FY24, delivering a profitable second half, accelerating revenue growth whilst at the same time growing our margin and generating cash. This performance has been achieved against one of the most challenging backdrops our industry has experienced and is testament to how our customers feel about our on-trend, affordable, long lasting, lifestyle appropriate clothes.
“The strength of our brand and unique product range remain the key drivers of our success and keep our customers returning to us for their wardrobe needs. We are incredibly proud to see the success that our Sosandar clothes are having in the UK’s biggest retailers and through our first partnerships internationally.
“We enter the new financial year well placed, with a strong cash position in order to execute the next stage of our growth strategy. April trading has been strong with continued improvement in profitability driven in particular by gross margin. We fully expect that we will deliver more milestones in FY25 as we open our first physical retail stores and continue to take the Sosandar brand to more customers across the UK and worldwide.”