Revenue rockets 154 per cent at Gymshark owner
Published on Friday, 03 May 2019
Revenue rocketed by more than 154 per cent at the parent company of fitness apparel business Gymshark during its latest financial year while its profits also surged by almost £10m.
Solihull-headquartered Clade Group has reported sales of £103m for the year to 31 July 2018, up from £38.5m, while Gymshark's turnover increased to the same total from £40.5m.
Clade Group's pre-tax profits for the period shot up from £7.9m to £17.5m and Gymshark's surged to £17.5m from £8.1m.
Gymshark was founded by Ben Francis five years ago with the help of some school friends in 2012.
A statement signed off by the board Clade Group board said: "The company continued to aggressively grow its sales and profit throughout the year across all its key territories worldwide.
"The focus for the business was to expand into key new markets by rolling out additional e-commerce websites, all focused around having a local execution plan and thus capitalising on the current established D2C model.
"The company recognises that attracting, developing and retaining talent, while growing the company's unique culture, has been pivotal to the success of the brand and will continue to be paramount in the years to come.
"The market remains competitive, including globally established sports and active wear brands through to fashion brand with fitness focused product lines.
"However, the company continues to outperform the market and gain global market share."
The results come after, in July 2018, the business said it was predicted to add more than £100m in turnover during its most-recent financial year. In October 2018 Gymshark took 31,000 sq ft at IM Properties' Connexion campus.
In March the company confirmed plans to build its first gym and innovation hub.
The statement added: "The directors expect the performance of the company to increase in the forthcoming year, including increasing revenue orders and customer numbers.
"This is the result of the company continuing to expand the D2C model through further e-commerce websites with localised execution, alongside consumer demand for the brand and innovative, on trend products.
"Investment will continue in increasingly resource, as well as developing and retaining talent with a focus upon health and wellbeing.
"Tangible developments are intended to provide world-class facilities to the company to enable research and development, increased innovation and additional cutting-edge creative output.
"Overseas developments in the forthcoming year includes expanding to new markets through the roll out of international e-commerce stores."