Online fashion retailer Oxendales bounced back to profit in 2023 despite challenging economic conditions and a small decline in revenues over the period.
Newly filed accounts for Oxendale & Co show the Santry, Dublin 17-based company rebounded in the 12 months to March 2nd last after plunging to a more than €2 million loss in the previous year.
Pretax profits at the Irish entity, part of the UK-based N Brown group of brands, topped €720,000 over the financial period. In a report attached to the accounts, the directors said the improvement was largely due to a reduction in the management charge it pays to JD Williams, its parent company in the Brown group, after a “transfer pricing review” in the financial year.
The directors said they were satisfied with the results, despite the “challenging” economic environment and flagged “significant increases in energy and other prices combined with interest rate increases”, which they said continue to put pressure on household budgets.
Oxendale & Co, which employed 36 people at its north Dublin facility in the year to the end of March 2nd 2024, also reported a slight improvement in its gross profit margin in the year from 51.7 per cent to 52.6 per cent.
Trading revenues declined slightly from €21 million to €18 million.
Despite trading conditions, then Oxendales chief executive Paul Sweeney told The Irish Times in 2023 that the former mail order catalogue company saw “lots of opportunity” in the Irish market after undertaking what he described as an “ambitious digital transformation programme”.
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Mr Sweeney resigned from the board of the company in 2023, according to the most recent filings, and was replaced as chief executive by former KBC Bank Ireland executive Stephen O’Boyle.
The company has been active in the Republic for more than 60 years, starting out as the Jays Irish knitwear catalogue before its acquisition by JD Williams in the 1970s.
Repositioning itself in recent years, the retailer recently introduced products from third-party brands to its stable in recent times, including Mango, Phase Eight and Under Armour, as well as lifestyle brands such as Apple, Dyson and Fenty.
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