Charles Tyrwhitt is strong ahead of Regent Street opening, US market grows

Charles Tyrwhitt has bounced back from the pandemic, its latest set of results has shown. And that’s despite a move away from the formal clothing in which the company has always specialised.

In fact, the business (which along with The White Company is owned by Bectin Ltd) has made the most of the trend to a more relaxed approach to office dressing by tweaking its offer and this clearly benefitted it in the year to the end of July 2023.

The company, whose main focus is selling online in countries including the UK, US, Germany and Australia, said turnover for the latest year rose from £185.2 million to £269.2 million. That puts the company ahead of its pre-pandemic figures, which were around £220 million. It had fallen to a turnover low of around £100 million during the pandemic.

Underlying EBITDA jumped from £16.6 million to £44.1 million, although reported operating profit was down from £43.1 million to £18.6 million as certain one-off costs hit the figures. The company paid founder Nicholas Wheeler and his wife Chrissie Rucker (founder of The White Company) more than £21 million, the first such payment since 2020. Pre-tax profit fell from £42.8 million to £18.7 million and net profit dropped from £31.8 million to £15.1 million.

The privately-held company expects sales to rise around 20% in the current financial year as the domestic market grows but the US market in particular expands.

In the latest year, some 49% of its sales were derived from the UK, although international sales as a percentage are growing with the UK accounting for 54% in the previous financial year.

It said that its trading success was broad-based and consistent across its retail and digital sales channels with its physical stores continuing their recovery, driven by its strong customer service ethos and improvements to its ranging such as the aforementioned emphasis on casualwear.

During the period it opened new stores in the UK, four of them in shopping malls and in a high street location in London. 

It continues to open more stores and this week will open a 4,200 sq ft space will open on Regent Street in London. It’s also investing in upgrading stores, including its Madison Avenue site in New York. 

But its digital channels continue to account for the majority of its sales and growth here in the last year was supported by its digital marketing activity aimed at driving more website traffic and attracting new customers. It also managed to achieve a higher conversion rate.

The performance was also helped by the company responding to inflationary pressures on its customers with its “ongoing strong value proposition – ensuring our customers can access great quality product at reasonable prices”.