Stringent cost-cutting has helped Fat Face to almost halve its losses despite the pandemic slamming sales.
The High Street favourite posted a loss of £13.6million in the year to May 29, down from £26.4million the previous year, company accounts show.
Turnover fell from £203million to £165million.
Sales slump: Fat Face posted a loss of £13.6m in the year to May 29, down from £26.4m the previous year, company accounts show. Turnover fell from £203m to £165m
Fat Face closed more than 20 stores –although it still has more than 200 – and had its rent bill slashed by more than £2million. It also cut around 600 jobs.
Fat Face’s digital arm has boomed since the pandemic struck and it wants 70 per cent of sales to be online within the next few years – up from 39 per cent now.
The group said that it was not expecting any further lockdowns this year or next, but added that it was ‘prepped and ready to handle’ further shutdowns should they happen.
Fat Face was founded in the Alps in 1988 by friends Jules Leaver and Tim Slade, who began selling t-shirts out of a campervan at night so they could afford to ski during the day.
In September chief executive Liz Evans was poached by Asda owners the Issa brothers to run the supermarket’s clothing line George.
She has been replaced by Will Crumbie – who was previously Fat Face’s finance boss.
The company was bought by private equity group Bridgepoint in 2007 for £360million but was bailed out by a cluster of banks and debt funds last year.
