Selfridges’ parent company has reported its results for the year to early February and its losses soared during the period, despite higher revenue.

The company — Cambridge Retail Group Holding Limited — is also the parent company of Brown Thomas Arnotts in Ireland and De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands.

And despite headlines about such widening losses, there’s no denying that its results this time actually make it hard to draw an accurate picture of what’s been happening at the business.

They cover the 53 weeks to 3 February but are compared to a 58-week year-earlier period, although it’s only a 23-week period from the point at which the business was acquired by the Central-Signa consortium. And then there are one-offs to take into account that have skewed the figures.

So let’s play it straight and just look at the numbers. What do they tell us? During the 53-week period revenue was £1.574 billion compared to the 58-week period in FY23 when revenue was £804.7 million for the group.

Operating profit in the latest year, before a non-recurring impairment of goodwill of £156.4 million, was £11.4 million compared to a restated operating loss of £42.7 million in the previous year.

But the loss before income tax was £340.3 million against a restated loss of £126.2 million a year ago. More positively though, EBITDA this time was a much better £208 million, up from £41 million in the previous period. The FY24 EBITDA figure excluded that giant impairment charge mentioned earlier.

The company said the impairment of goodwill arose due to a more conservative sales forecast from the Dutch business’s five-year cash flow forecast. This is in light of expected increased economic pressures in the Netherlands.

Zeroing in on the specific UK retail and e-tail part of the business, Selfridges Retail Limited has also filed its accounts for the same period.

But there was bad news here as well.

In Britain, the company said its turnover continued to feel impacts from various economic factors. They included fewer international visitors coming to the UK and shopping in its stores; the linked ongoing impact of the loss of tax-free shopping for such visitors; disruption to some supply chains due to international issues; inflation and exchange rate fluctuations; luxury brand price rises; and the higher cost of living impacting consumers in general.

The company said that revenue in the 53 weeks fell 1% to £834.9 million compared to a restated 52-week previous period. Operating profit was £27.7 million compared to a restated prior year operating profit of £38.8 million. And the loss before tax was £41.9 million million against a £39.3 million loss for FY23.

This loss was caused by the application of the IFRS 16 ‘Leases’ accounting standard it said. This meant an increase in depreciation and finance costs and a reduction in rental expenses. As the company’s more significant leases are the start of their lease terms, those increases in depreciation and finance costs outweighed any rent reductions.

Yet Selfridges has also said it was “pleased” with its performance in the latest year as it “saw a million more visits to our stores”. And it’s also said that the current year — during which time its ownership structure has changed again following Signa’s spectacular implosion — was trading in line with expectations.