About You posts 48.5 percent sales growth, outlook positive

About You Holding SE reported year-on-year revenue and customer growth for FY 2021/2022, which ended on February 28, 2022. The company expects continued growth and an improved adjusted EBITDA in FY 2022/2023.

The company said in a release that the group recorded top-line growth of 48.5 percent year-on-year to 1,731.6 million euros, despite the challenging macro-environment slowing down global growth forecasts.

Commenting on the full year trading, Tarek Müller, co-founder and co-CEO of About You, said: “Fuelled by our relentless focus on growth initiatives in FY 2021/2022, we are well-prepared to further withstand the unsettled market dynamics. We are confident about our outlook for the current financial year and can reaffirm our mid-term ambition to hit break-even at group level in FY 2023/2024.”

Highlights of About You’s full year results

With newly added brands, such as Weekday, Monki, and Furla, About You’s product assortment has grown to more than 500,000 items from over 3,500 brands, strengthening its sales performance and customer gain. Active customers increased by 34.8 percent to 11.4 million from 8.4 million a year earlier.

During the year under review, the company expanded its international footprint and invested in the Southern European and Nordic markets, as well as its European distribution network. In Southern Europe and the Nordics alone, where the company has started its operations in Greece, Portugal, and Norway, it acquired more than 1.5 million active customers and generated over 100 million euros in revenues this year.

To cater to the growing demand, the company opened a second distribution hub in Slovakia in 2021, planning to further extend its logistics network with two more hubs in Poland and France by 2023.

The company added that as the growth investments have accelerated the marketing cost-to-revenue ratio, the negative adjusted EBITDA margin fell to 3.9 percent, equivalent to negative 66.9 million euros.

About You posts growth across commerce segments

Both commerce segments, DACH and RoE delivered revenue growth of 27.3 percent to 839.9 million euros in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and 65.6 percent to 767.7 million euros in the rest of Europe.

In DACH, the company reported continued profitability with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 9.5 percent in the fourth quarter. For FY 2021/2022, DACH increased the adjusted EBITDA margin to 6.6 percent or 55.5 million euros, while RoE reduced its adjusted EBITDA margin to negative 18.9 percent equivalent to negative 145.1 million euros.

The B2B business, TME, reported increased sales and profitability fuelled by Scayle’s launch in November 2021. Scayle has won renowned clients, such as Marc O'Polo, Tom Tailor, and Depot in FY 2021/2022, contributing to the triple-digit growth of 100.4 percent to 167.4 million euros. Amounting to 29 million euros, the adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 17.3 percent.

For FY 2022/2023, the company expects to generate a group revenue growth range of 25 to 35 percent (2,165 to 2,338 million euros) and adjusted EBITDA of negative 70 to negative 50 million euros with margin of negative 3.2 to negative 2.1 percent).