In the UK the surprisingly warm weather for the time of year is adversely affecting some clothes retailers’ sales, but Ted Baker has seen sales rises in the 3 months to 8 November.
The clothing brand has enjoyed a prosperous period thanks to an increased presence in the international market, with new stores opening up away from the UK. A rise in online sales has also helped to boost their sales and profits in recent months. Management at Ted Baker believe that these factors have helped to balance out the warmer weather that has caused problems for other UK retail clothing chains such as Next.
A Strong International Reach
Ray Kelvin is the founder and chief executive of the clothing firm. He pointed out that Ted Baker is now a global brand with a “strong international reach”, which has helped to lessen the impact of the local economic and weather related issues. One possible downside to their increased global reach was noted by Kelvin as being their exposure to currency fluctuations. This issue took 2% off the company’s retail sales performance.
In fact, the sales increase for the three months to 8 November stood at 15.7% compared to the same period a year ago. A particularly strong performance from the brand in the Middle East has been noted as one of the key factors behind their recent sales surge.
The retailer’s expansion across the planet has led to new stores being opened in Toronto and Las Vegas, along with additional concessions in South Korea, Portugal, France, Spain and the US. In terms of internet sales, an impressive 34.6% rise was reported.
The first half of this financial year had been even better for Ted Baker. In this period, they saw sales shoot up by 17.4% and profits by 24%.Their full year wholesale sales growth forecast for the full year has now been raised from 18% to 20%.