Quiz anticipates a return to profitability this year, with earnings before tax of no less than £4.3m and a profit before tax of no less than £500,000.
The Glasgow-headquartered fashion retailer stated that full-year revenue should be ahead of expectations, at approximately £78m.
The latest trading update, for the financial year ended 31 March 2022, explained that positive sales momentum previously reported during the Christmas period continued through the final quarter of the financial year.
"This encouraging momentum was achieved across both the group’s store and concession portfolio, as well as its e-commerce website, and resulted in like-for-like revenues broadly consistent with those generated in full year 2019, prior to the impact of Covid-19."
Quiz also reported that the gross margin recorded in the last quarter was consistent with the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.
"This was driven by strong full-price sell through of Quiz’s trademark occasionwear and casualwear products, in response to the increased prevalence of social occasions such as weddings, and holidays compared to the previous year."
Last September, Quiz reported trebling annual losses after lockdown store closures hit retail trading.
An underlying pre-tax loss of £9.6m was made for the year to the end of March 2021, against losses of £3.1m the previous year, after sales fell by 66%.
Quiz closed 17 underperforming stores as part of cost-saving efforts, taking its estate down to 61 in the UK and seven in Ireland by the year-end.
But as at 30 March 2022, the group had a net cash balance of £4.2m, comprising a cash balance of £5.6m, offset by a £1.4m drawdown of available bank facilities. It has a total of £3.5m of bank and credit facilities available, which are scheduled for renewal in September 2022.
Quiz expects to publish its full results in July.
The group operates through an omni-channel business model, which encompasses online sales, standalone stores, concessions, international franchises and wholesale arrangements.
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