Quiz has reported an 11% year-on-year rise in total sales to £9.8m, driven by increased demand for 'occasionwear' during the first festive period in three years not impacted by pandemic-related restrictions.
The Glasgow-headquartered fast fashion retailer's trading update for the month of December also showed that this helped offset slightly weaker than anticipated revenues in the weeks prior - and contributed to a 3% increase in revenues in the three months to the end of year.
As a result, group revenues in the nine months to 31 December totalled £75.2m - a 23% increase on the £61m generated in the equivalent period in the previous year.
Sales growth was driven by a 19% increase in revenues generated across Quiz’s UK store and concession portfolio to £6.2m.
Online sales were flat through its own website, but less activity through Next and other online platforms resulted in a 35% reduction in December third party web sales and a 14% overall reduction in online.
International revenues, which comprise five stores and 18 concessions in Ireland and international franchise partners, increased 20% to £1.8m.
As at 16 January 2023, Quiz reported total liquidity headroom of £12.7m, being a cash balance of £9.2m and £3.5m of undrawn bank facilities - compared to £6.5m at the end of last March, comprising cash net of borrowings of £4.4m and £2.1m of un-utilised bank facilities.
While the Christmas period was positive, the board stated that it recognises that current macroeconomic pressures may impact consumer demand across the sector.
Chief executive Tarak Ramzan said: “Whilst the wider trading environment is expected to be challenging over the coming months, we are confident that Quiz is well positioned to deliver a performance at least in line with the board’s expectations in the current financial year.”
Panmure Gordon equity analyst Georgia Pettman commented that as the anniversary of the recovery of store sales from the omicron variant is approached, Quiz is making some “sensible comments about the extent of uncertainty in the market overall, while it is still clearly happy with the seasonal outturn“.
She added: “It looks to us as though Quiz has put itself in a good place and has confirmed its confidence in beating FY3/23 market expectation.“
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