Burnley-headquartered retailer The Original Factory Shop has filed a loss of £2.2m for year to March 29, 2020, compared to a profit of £69.5m in the prior year. Turnover had declined from £160.8m to £132.2m whereas EBITDA rose from £3.6m to £5.5m. The company has outlined plans to open more than 50 new stores over the next three years which will create some 400 new jobs.
In a statement, the business said: “FY20 was a reset year for the business with a focus on stabilising and growing EBITDA. The group enjoyed a strong year of underlying profit growth, achieving underlying EBITDA of £5.5m against £3.6m in FY19. This result was achieved despite the result of being negatively impacted by the Covid-19 crisis which saw stores closed in the final week of the financial year.
“Like many businesses, the group was impacted by the global Covid-19 crisis, with the consequent closure of our stores impacting revenues in FY20 by approximately £2.4m and EBITDA by approximately £800,000.
“The improved financial performance enabled the business to focus on long-term investments, particularly in ongoing expenditure to refresh our stores and in new tills and EPOS in store enabling contactless payments to be taken across the estate. The opportunity was taken to exit three poorer-performing stores during the year including our two clearance stores.”
Share