Very Group posts uplift in full year sales and profit
The Very Group has increased its full year sales and profits after boosting its group customer numbers by 7.6%.
In the year to 3 July, group revenue climbed by 13% to a record £2.32 billion while group pre-tax profit came in at £81.7 million compared to £48.4 million in the prior year.
The group, which owns Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com, said the revenue increase was driven by an uplift in Very retail sales of 24.9% in the period.
Henry Birch, chief executive of The Very Group, said: “I am pleased to report outstanding group performance, including record revenue, continued profit growth and strong cashflow generation.
“Whether working remotely, educating and entertaining the kids, updating their homes or simply wanting to look and feel good, we’ve given millions of families the items they need via an extensive range of flexible payment products.
“We’ve done this while moving our company forward operationally and strategically, from continuous digital customer experience improvements and developing our Very Pay platform to extending next day delivery cut off thanks to our highly automated fulfilment centre.”
During the year, Very increased its number of customers by 12.4% to 3.82 million which boosted the number of group customers by 7.6% to 4.82 million.
It also extended its artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, Very Assistant, from the Very app to its website, which led it to become the group’s largest customer service channel. This combined with a focus on providing online tools for customers to self-serve helped inbound customer service contact to reduce by almost a quarter year-on-year.
The group also strengthened its executive team with the appointment of former BBC technology director Matt Grest as chief information officer. In addition, former Fenwick chief executive Robbie Feather is set to join the business as retail managing director in late 2021.
Looking ahead, Birch said: “The current environment is not without challenge, but our pandemic experience has shown us that our multi-category offer, combining leading brands with our Very Pay platform, is relevant to an increasingly wide number of customers. We are in good shape to face any future uncertainty, and remain confident that we are well positioned to take advantage of a market and customer behaviour that is moving towards our model.”
