​The Very Group has released its results for the 26 weeks to the end of December and it seems that cost controls were crucial.

The home shopping giant said that the market during the second quarter continue to prove challenging as expected and it saw falling group revenue for the first half, down 4.5% to £1.171 billion.

Yet it still managed to deliver improved adjusted EBITDA, which rose 17.4% to £150.2 million by the end of Q2. This represented one of its strongest ever earnings performances in absolute terms with its highest ever adjusted EBITDA margin achieved.

The company said that this, combined with careful working capital management, has contributed to improved operating cash flows.

And as it continues to focus on higher-margin sales and cost discipline through the rest of the 2025 financial year, it expects to see a continued strengthening in its profitability.

As mentioned, revenue was down year on year due to a weak market and tough comparisons with buoyant sales a year earlier. Within its total revenue figure its flagship Very UK brand represented 87% of sales, up from 86% a year ago.

But Very UK’s revenue fell 3.2% to just under £1.024 billion. At the smaller legacy Littlewoods business, revenue declined by 15.3% to £109.2 million, which is in line with its expectations as the company continues to manage it’s decline.

Overall, year-to-date group retail sales fell 4.4% to £953.3 million with Very UK retail sales down by 3.1% at £819.2 million. The company’s retail sales figure is different from its total revenue figure given that it also has a financial services arm.

Its largest retail category, Electrical saw a decline of 4.5% at Very UK, while Toys, Gifts and Beauty declined by 0.6% due to tough comparisons with the previous year’s period. Yet Beauty alone was up 6.3%.

Fashion and Sports was less buoyant with a 6% decline in a heavily discounted and contracting market. However, excluding the impact of Nike, it saw growth of 1.7% in the category with 18.4% growth in Sport.