Shares of Manchester-based online fashion and home goods retailer N Brown Group soared as much as 40% on Wednesday after it published results for the year ended February 26 showing its adjusted profit before tax rose 47% to £43.1 million.

N Brown said revenue slipped 1.8% to £715.7 million.

The company said it will consider the introduction of a dividend in FY23.

N Brown’s five core brands are Simply Be, Jacamo, JD Williams, Ambrose Wilson and Home Essentials.

N Brown Group CEO Steve Johnson said: “I am pleased with our continued progress in transforming N Brown into a more focused digital business, with a distinct and improving offer across our strategic brands.

“Our strategic brands returned to growth in the year with growing customer numbers. As we move forward, we are evolving our priorities to concentrate our growth focus on Simply Be, JD Williams and Jacamo, where we see the strongest market potential.

“We’re executing on our investment plans to unlock these opportunities including through new websites which will be rolled out progressively over the coming months.

“In what has been another volatile period in the consumer environment, I would like to thank all of my colleagues for their continued commitment to serving customers, and their role in delivering a strong performance in the year.

“The work we have done means we are significantly better placed than we were before the pandemic and, although cautious in the short-term due to inflationary impacts and consumer behaviour, we remain confident that over the medium-term our strategy will support the delivery of 7% product revenue growth with a 13% EBITDA margin.”