Castore has filed its annual accounts for what it called a “landmark year” – the period to February 2024 – and said the business has continued to scale rapidly with sales increasing as much as 65% to £190 million.

Gross profit rose to £126.5 million from £80 million but the company had been making major investments during the year and also had exceptional costs (more of which later). So the operating loss after exceptionals was £24.48 million, a swing from an operating profit of £16.56 million in the previous year. 

The loss before tax was £28.89 million following a profit of £14.67 million in the previous year and the net loss for the period was £21.54 million, following an £11.73 million profit the year before.

The increase in sales came despite a number of macroeconomic headwinds with its growth supported by strong development in both its partnerships and mainline divisions.

The company said its vertically integrated model remains unique in the global sports market and has allowed it to continue to take market share.

As mentioned, partnerships are hugely important to it and during the period it strengthened is roster of sponsorship partners, which takes in globally recognised elite teams and athletes across motorsport, football, rugby, cricket and tennis.

These new partnerships have allowed it to demonstrate its ability to scale internationally with clubs such as Feyenoord in the Netherlands, Leinster in Ireland and Athletic Bilbao in Spain.

Every single one of these link gives the company opportunities to showcase its product offer to potential customers in new geographies.

As well as the sales growth it saw during the year, the business also successfully raised extra funding with £145 million raised in a round led by Raine Partners with Hanaco Ventures and Felix Capital also taking part.

Castore has an ambition to build the number one premium sportswear brand globally and is committing significant funding to making this happen so the cash raised should help it in that effort.

This has included investing in increasing the team with headcount during the year rising from 399 to 517, while the number of physical stores and websites increased to 68. Ramping up its product offer has also seen it expanding its storage and fulfilment centres and suppliers. 

That said, it has also been consolidating UK storage facilities and during the second half closed a warehouse facility in Milton Keynes, moving to a larger facility in Knowsley. This took longer than expected and also came with some early teething troubles that impacted trading during the black Friday and Christmas periods when it was experiencing unprecedented demand. 

That involved significant exceptional costs and also impacted profit. But processing times have normalised since then and Castore has also invested in a dedicated project management resource mitigate the risk of similar issues in the future.

But its spend is expected to deliver strong returns over the medium term and the company’s investment continues with new concept stores having opened in Dublin and Dubai after the end of the period in question. Also post-period-end it announced a long-term partnership with Oracle Red Bull Racing and the completion of an exclusive, territory-specific license with Umbro to service professional teams as part of a segmented multibrand approach.