By Michael Susin
Boohoo Group PLC reported on Wednesday a swing to pretax loss for the first half of fiscal 2023 and downgraded its guidance for the full-year driven by the impact of inflationary pressures and lower-than-expected sales.
The London-listed online fashion retailer said that it expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--margins for the year ending Feb. 28 to be between 3% and 5%, compared to the previously guided range of 4% and 7%.
"As a result of the impact that the macro-economic and consumer backdrop has had on the group's revenues in the first half, our expectation is for a similar rate of revenue declines to persist over the remainder of the financial year if these conditions continue," the company said.
Boohoo reported a pretax loss for the six months ended Aug. 31 of 15.2 million pounds ($16.3 million) compared to a profit of GBP24.6 million a year ago.
Revenue fell to GBP882.4 million from GBP975.9 million.
The company said that adjusted Ebitda for the period fell 58% to GBP35.5 million, impacted by logistics inflation, weaker consumer demand and higher costs.
"We have a clear plan in place to improve future profitability and financial performance through self-help via the delivery of key projects, which will stand us in good stead as macro-economic headwinds ease. We remain confident in the long-term outlook," Chief Executive John Lyttle said.
Write to Michael Susin at michael.susin@wsj.com
