Hush sales continue to rise but investments dent profits

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 19, 2022

Hush has filed its account for the year to the end of March with the women’s fashion and lifestyle brand saying it was “pleased with the performance for the period, particularly taking into account the ongoing impact of Covid-19 and more recently, the political instability in Europe”.

Sales for the company grew 17% to £68 million, the expansion coming primarily from its own e-commerce website, driven both by the acquisition of new customers and increased sales from existing customers. It said that this reflected a “continued increase in brand awareness” with the customer database also growing by 17%.

Meanwhile, gross profit rose 6% with the profit increase being smaller than the sales rise due to higher costs mainly linked to the ongoing Covid impact on the supply chain. 

The company also continued to make investments in marketing and staff to help it lock in future growth and this resulted in operating profit of £8.6 million. That was actually 25% lower than the operating profit of more than £11 million in the previous year.

Profit after tax for the year was £7.48 million, down from £9.86 million a year earlier.

Hush, which sells both online and through concessions in John Lewis, was one of the winers of the pandemic as its loungewear sold strongly during lockdown periods. Launching upgraded e-tail sites during the pandemic also set it up for faster growth. 

Earlier this year it unveiled an interesting project as it celebrated young talent by debuting the first-ever collection created by its five in-house interns, putting the spotlight on the interns who worked on it.

It also launched a partnership with charity Hackney Empire, linked to its Creative Futures Programme, to give opportunities to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds “to use arts and creativity to learn a new talent or just giving them a safe place to be”.