Liberty booms in latest year as it focuses on profitable growth

Liberty Retail has filed its accounts for the 53 weeks to early February with the company that operates the Liberty flagship store in London’s West End saying that operating profit jumped to £4.363 million, up from just £22,000 in the previous 52-week period. 

Admittedly, it had the benefit of an extra week this time, but the difference in the figures between the two financial years are mainly about improved performance rather than extra trading time.

It said the big movement year-on-year was due to the uplift that came with the post-Covid recovery in the store as well as a fall in selling and distribution costs.

Total revenue reached £123.9 million, up from £116.1 million. Management EBITDA was £11 million, up from £3.9 million, and as a percentage of sales, it was 8.9%, a big leap from 3.4% in the previous year.

And it added that all product categories performed well with Liberty branded products in particular outperforming third-party brands, while it saw a strong performance in accessories, home and beauty.

The company’s e-commerce business – which sells Liberty products direct globally – saw a revenue decline however, although it didn’t tell us by how much. Yet the focus on profitable operations meant that the profit contribution of this business unit grew. Profitability here was led by operational efficiency improvements and changes to the online range and promotional strategy.

As for beauty, it was another record year in terms of both volume and value sales for the Liberty Advent Calendar and the Beauty Drop subscription service expanded further with more active subscribers at the end of the period. The company calls this offer “unique” and said it builds on the strength of its beauty business and benefits customers who subscribe to the programme with quarterly boxes of curated beauty products in return for a monthly spend commitment. And it pointed to the long-term benefits to it that will be seen in sales growth and retention of high-value customers.