Otto UK, which operates Freemans, Grattan, Look Again and
Kaleidoscope saw Christmas sales exceed all expectations. Total
sales were up 14 per cent on last year and the peak week in the
period, which reached £17.6 million, was the best Otto has
had for two years. Internet sales increased by 90 per cent,
“double the UK market growth rate,” said the company.
In the period Freemans grew by 60 per cent but the star performer
was Kaleidoscope, which attained 134 per cent growth. Some
£84.5m was achieved from catalogue sales, a rise of 2 per
cent on the same period last year. Otto attributes this to the
appointment of CEO, Mike Hancox who was brought in to turn
profits around for the home shopping house after a long period of
decline. On the success of Christmas, Hancox commented,
“Sales have exceeded our expectations and are the result of
a number of business initiatives working and complementing each
other, combined with good management”.
Chris Poad, head of e-commerce at Otto told CEB, “The Christmas
performance of our brands online was beyond all our plans in
2006. Although we are benefiting from increasing use of the
internet for shopping by our core customers, these exceptional
results are largely due to integrated marketing programmes across
offline and online channels, new exclusive online product ranges
and our increasing ability to merchandise and trade our websites
dynamically.”
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