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Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
Business
Jon Robinson

Hotter Shoes hails strong first quarter and 'double-digit' sales increase

Hotter Shoes "performed strongly" during the first three months of its financial year, achieving a "double-digit increase" in sales.

The Skelmersdale-headquartered company added it has also seen an improvement in its gross margin.

The firm's parent, Unbound Group, was admitted to AIM in February after it demerged from TGI Fridays.

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A statement issued to the London Stock Exchange said: "Hotter has performed strongly in Q1, delivering a double-digit increase in revenue against the comparator period last year as well as an improvement in gross margin.

"The company is seeing the benefits of its omnichannel strategy with the performance of the retail estate being especially pleasing.

"The active customer base continues to grow, with Unbound's email database exceeding 1m.

"Hotter has achieved this strong performance despite the macroeconomic backdrop of rising inflation, supply chain challenges and the impact of the Russia / Ukraine conflict.

"The board believes that the outlook for the external environment continues to look challenging for the remainder of this financial year, the performance highlights the strength of the Hotter brand, the resilience of the business model and the ability to adapt at pace.

"The group aims to continue mitigating some of these risks while continuing to grow.

"Costs are being tightly managed with marketing, variable and fixed cost efficiencies being delivered as revenue continues to grow.

"The company believes its ability to manage its cost base, its right-sized omnichannel model and in-house manufacturing give it the capability to adapt to challenging market conditions."

Chief executive Ian Watson added: "I am delighted that the progress we have made in transforming Hotter continues to be translated into improved financial performance.

"The development of the Unbound Group platform is gathering pace and we have secured a number of exciting launch partner brands within footwear and apparel.

"We are engaged in positive discussions with a number of additional potential partners that will further develop our footwear and apparel offer and launch our wellness proposition, to be followed by other target categories in phased implementations.

"We continue to be guided by our unique insight of our consumer base as we curate a range of products specifically for our target audience."

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