Retailer City Chic Collective Ltd (ASX: CCX) delivered an impressive full-year result despite many of its ASX retail competitors claiming difficult economic conditions were hurting their performance.
City Chic is a clothing retailer which was previously known as Specialty Fashion Group. In 2018 the company sold 5 of its brands including Millers, Katies and Rivers to fellow ASX listed retailer Noni B Limited (ASX: NBL). As a result of the sale the only brand remaining was City Chic.
City Chic’s Impressive Results
In its most recent financial reporting period, City Chic reported sales growth of 12.6% to $148.4 million with like for like sales growth of 12.2%. This strong sales performance helped the company report a net profit after tax of $16 million. This represents a big turnaround from last year’s $9.3 million net loss.
Online sales continued to grow strongly and made up 44% of all sales for the financial year, up from 40% in FY18.
Discretionary retailing (i.e. buying non-essential goods like fashionable clothing) can be a volatile space to operate in, and many ASX listed retailers have gone bust over the years collapsing under a pile of debt.
I would be wary if the company started taking on considerable debt to fund its international expansion plans. Fortunately, City Chic’s balance sheet is very strong with net cash of $23.2 million.
City Chic announced a final dividend of 1.5 cents bringing the full-year dividend to 4 cents per share. During the year, City Chic also paid a special dividend of 2.5 cents following the divestment of some of its core brands.
Will The Good Times Continue?
City Chic’s management said that like-for-like sales growth had remained positive for the first eight weeks of the new year and they expect this trend to continue throughout the remainder of FY20.
Management also indicated they plan to open a further 20 stores across Australia and New Zealand over the next 2 years.
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At the time of publishing, Luke has no financial interest in any companies mentioned.
