ASOS CEO: Brexit sales uplift outweighs higher sourcing costs

ASOS' chief executive Nick Beighton expects the online fashion pure player to benefit from the depreciation of the pound in the wake of the country’s Brexit-vote. Beighton told the press on Tuesday that the weak pound made ASOS’ sales prices look cheaper to mainland and overseas customers.

Strong second half
Beighton was adressing reporters after his company published better than expected second half sales. “I am pleased to report strong retail sales growth of 30% (+26% on constant currency basis) over the four months to 30 June 2016, underpinned by our continued price and proposition investments. UK growth remains strong at +28% and we have seen further acceleration across the US, EU and ROW segments; overall International retail sales increased by 31% (25% on constant currency basis)”, the CEO was quoted in the official statement.

Benefits outweigh sourcing costs
Beighton said he expected the prognosed sales uplift would more than offset the negative impact of higher sourcing costs. However, he stressed that it was too early to predict any long term implications of Brexit for the UK and ASOS.

Cross-border success story
ASOS is one of the UK’s early pure-play success stories, selling over 85,000 branded and own-brand products through localised mobile and web experiences, delivering from fulfilment centres in the UK, US and Europe to almost every country in the world.  It currently operates eight local language websites in UK, US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia and Russia.

At 30 June 2016, ASOS claimed to have had 12.0 million active customers, of which 4.6 million were located in the UK and 7.4 million were located internationally.

Image credit: ASOS press room