Danish fashion giant Bestseller has released its annual results and said its performance in 2023/24 was “impacted by challenging conditions in the global fashion market”. 

Despite this, its profitability improved and it said it “will continue to invest in transforming its business to adapt to new demands”.

The company is controlled by billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen who also controls Topshop and has big stakes in ASOS and Zalando.

It said that in the year to the end of July, top-line revenue across wholesale, retail and e-commerce channels fell 4% to DKK35.6 billion (€4.77bn/£3.99bn/$5.2bn). This was driven by falling online sales at both partners and its own online channels. But sales from retail stores “continued to grow in line with recent years”.

In fact, they rose 5% as the firm opened 330 new locations, bringing the total number of stores to over 2,800. This included expanding existing stores as well as moving stores to bigger and more suitable sites. And it “expects to intensify its focus on retail stores and expansion in the coming years”.

The company owns brands including Vero Moda, Jack & Jones, Selected and Only, among others, and even with that top-line revenue pressure, “bottom-line profitability improved, primarily due to normalisation and efficiency gains in the company’s logistics operations”. As a result, pre-tax profitability increased by 8% to a total of DKK5.3 billion.

“We are satisfied that we were able to deliver a strong profit but humbly acknowledge that top-line growth will be required going forward. Our strength as a multichannel fashion company, combined with the hard work put in by all colleagues, provided the ability to deliver results under difficult circumstances. This gives the opportunity to invest in building an even stronger foundation, which we are continuously determined to do,” said CEO Holch Povlsen.

The company added that it continued to open new stores in existing and emerging markets and invested in tech platforms that underpin its operations.

It will also “significantly increase” its investments in, among other initiatives, increasing the volume of products made using preferred materials, including organic cotton and recycled polyester, scaling up collaboration across the supply chain to increase the pace of decarbonisation, and increasing reuse and recycling to extend product lifecycles.

Holch Povlsen added: “The long-term success of our business hinges upon achieving our financial, societal, and environmental goals. We recognise that despite progress in 2023-24, we are far from our desired outcomes. To succeed in decoupling commercial growth from our impact on the environment, we must and will increase our sustainability investments in the coming years. Through collaborative efforts we can collectively prepare the fashion industry for a more regenerative future, which respects planetary boundaries. This is our unwavering commitment.”