Fashion wholesale group Whispering Smith has reported its results for the year to March and it was clearly a tough period for the Manchester-based business.

The company, which operates as an importer, exporter and wholesale distributor, has offices in its home town and in London and said revenue fell a hefty 23% to £38 million during the year.

This was directly “due to the challenging retail environment” in its core geographical markets “coupled with excessive inventory being held within our largest retail partners”. This suppressed the need for in-season stock buys to the level seen in previous periods, although the directors said they believe that there will be “an uplift in this activity in the months ahead”.

On the plus side, margins “significantly” improved and returned to historical levels “due to the stability in freight rates and currency fluctuations”. This led to a significant positive swing in its pre-tax profit figure and although this was actually a loss, it was only negative to the tune of just under £1.1 million this time compared to a £5.3 million loss a year earlier. 

The latest year also included exceptional costs of £289,000 as a result of it moving its head office. Without that cost the aforementioned loss would have been even narrower and the company said it’s “optimistic about a return to profitability in 2025”. 

Other key figures include gross profit rising to £10.3 million from £8.2 million and the net loss for the year narrowing significantly to just under £1 million from £4.4 million.

It added that a key objective this year was to increase its cash balance and improve its cash conversion cycle and it has made progress in this area resulting in strong cash reserves.

And it said it continues to focus on implementing an omnichannel strategy to deliver sustainable and profitable growth with big progress made in developing e-commerce marketplace partnerships in the UK. Expansion of this channel into the EU will be a key strategic objective in 2025.

The company has also continued to invest both in expanding its range “to cover all aspects of fashion” and in its Netherlands operation that has “improved our infrastructure and has removed barriers to entry to enable business expansion into EU territories more efficiently and profitably”.