Falls in value and volume for Clarks before covid-19
Footwear group Clarks has published a new annual report, but the report is for the year ending February 1, 2020 and, therefore, does not reflect the effects of covid-19 on the business. Nor does it give much detail about the major overhaul in the ownership of the group that looks likely to go ahead after private equity firm LionRock Capital moved to acquire a majority stake in the footwear group at the end of 2020.
Chair of the board of Clarks, Stella David, said in her statement in the report that she was very pleased to report that a new financing structure was in place for the group, subject to shareholder approval.
Group turnover for the period was a little under £1.4 billion, a decline of 6.4% year on year.
It sold 42.9 million pairs of shoes and boots over the 12 months, down by 7.1% year on year.
Ms David confirmed that, for this report, the only effect of covid-19 was on the group’s operations in China at the very end of the reporting period. It reports its China results as part of the wider Asia-Pacific market, which accounted for around 11% of revenues and around 10% of pairs sold.
She warned that the covid-19 crisis would result in “substantial losses” for the recently ended 2020-2021 business year, but she said that, even before covid-19, the external environment was “challenging for Clarks” because of uncertainty in the global economy (pre-pandemic), declining footfall and the ongoing shift to online shopping.
