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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
World
Jon Robinson

Sales surge at fashion brand I Saw It First worn by Love Island hopefuls and Molly-Mae Hague

Sales at I Saw It First, the Manchester-based online fashion brand worn by Love Island contestants and influences such as Molly-Mae Hague, have surged to record levels.

The company, which was set up by Jalal Kamani, the brother of Boohoo co-founder Mahmud Kamani, has reported sales of almost £75m for its latest financial year.

However, the business remains in the red, with its pre-tax losses totalling £7.7m.

READ MORE: New name for Missguided after fast fashion giant was rescued by Sports Direct owner

UK sales increased from £50.9m to £69.3m in the year but EU turnover fell from £5.7m to £4.5m and from £1m to £915,000 in the rest of the world.

I Saw It First became an official partner of hit ITV show Love Island in 2019 and, according to ITV, the deal helped it add a quarter of a million new customers. The brand says its customer base now stands at three million.

In May this year, Glasgow influencer Molly McFarlane was unveiled as the face behind a new bridal collection for the fashion label.

The brand is just one of the many online fashion labels based in Manchester such as Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing and Missguided.

The first two are under the control of the Kamani family while Missguided was recently rescued by the owner of Sports Direct after collapsing into administration.

In a statement outlining its performance, the directors of I Saw It First said: "The company's strategy is to make our great choice of quality clothing, footwear and homeware affordable to our core demographic of 30s and under, focusing on the high growth digital channels to market.

"We will continue to focus on our domestic markets which we think we can further penetrate, whilst continuing to establish the brand in UK speaking territories like Australia and the USA.

"The company would like to become an industry leader in applying the best internal controls and processes to ensure supplier compliance and ethical policies are adhered to and we have made a number of senior appointments in the year which demonstrates our commitment to an agenda of change in the industry."

It also outlined a series of major changes to the way it is led with the departure of three senior figures in the year to October 2021.

Chief technology and logistics officer Andrew Stevenson-Thorpe, chief financial officer Mo Marzouk and director Shahzad Irshad have all left the business while former Matalan deputy CEO Greg Pateras became its first chief executive.

I Saw It First added: "The new management team will continue to build on the foundations already laid and will be looking to further evolve and differentiate the proposition to capitalise on the already sizeable customer base and high growth online sector."

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