Shares of Sosandar plc, the Wilmslow-based fashion firm run by former magazine publishers Ali Hall and Julie Lavington, fell as much as 16% after it published a trading update for its financial year ended March 31, 2025.
Sosandar said profit before tax is expected to be not less than £500,000, compared to a loss of £300,000 in the prior year.
The firm expects revenue of £37.2 million, down from £46.3 million, “reflecting the continued transition away from price promotional activity.”
Prior to this update, Sosandar believes that market expectations for the year were for revenues of £38.5 million and profit before tax of £1 million.
“This has been a year of strong strategic progress as we delivered what we set out to achieve: growth in margin and profit before tax, a reduction in price promotional activity and opening our first own stores,” said Sosandar.
“Throughout FY25 we remained steadfast in our approach in building the foundations for sustainable, profitable and cash-generative growth. We are now beginning to see the results of our disciplined approach coming through in our performance.
“March sales were in line with the prior year and this momentum has continued into April to date, with both own site sales and sales as a whole ahead of the prior year.
“PBT for the full year was softer than we had hoped, although a substantial positive swing compared with FY24. This was driven by slower February sales, but we continued to stick to our strategy and did not chase volume through implementing price promotions.
“The strategy is now proving successful, with the business reaching an inflection point back to topline revenue growth.”
Post-year end, Sosanadar said April trading has been strong, ahead of the prior year.
“Margin enhancement and profitability were prioritised as we continued our transition to becoming a full-price multi-channel retailer,” added the firm.
“The material improvement in gross margin against historical levels is now being delivered on a sustained basis and provides the foundation from which to drive sustainable and profitable cash-generative growth over the long-term towards our strategic objective of £10m PBT.
“Further to the announcement on 13 January 2025, trading in Q4 was robust in what is a seasonally quieter period, and against the continued challenging macro-environment. In January we saw full price sales in line with our expectations.
“February was very much the outlier with trading softer than we anticipated. However, in March, we returned to pleasing levels of full price sales, which were in line with the prior year. The momentum seen in March has continued into the new financial year with performance in April to date ahead of April 2024.
“In FY25 we opened our first six stores, including Bath and Harrogate which opened in February. These locations were carefully selected for being affluent, thriving locations where Sosandar customers over-index. We are incredibly proud of seeing the Sosandar brand on thriving high streets and are delighted with the reception we have received so far.
“We are pleased with the progress of our store portfolio to date, with sales tracking in line with our expectations, we have seen circa 60% of purchases in store being made by brand new customers to the brand and have seen a demonstrable uplift in traffic and conversion on our own site in the areas where our stores are located.
“We continue to benefit from our strong brand and understanding of our customers, compounded by the opening of our first six stores. This is also evident from the success we are seeing through our third-party partners and our ability to leverage Sosandar’s brand equity, leading to our first licensing agreement signed with NEXT for a Sosandar homeware range, which remains on track for launch in Autumn 2025.
“Having delivered on our strategic objectives for the year, we are confident that we are now at an inflection point. We expect a return to sales growth in FY26 and the board reiterates its confidence in the company delivering market expectations for the new financial year. The foundations are also in place for sustainable, profitable and cash-generative growth over the medium to long-term.”