About You grows sales but doubles losses

Fashion platform About You has increased revenue to 1.7 billion euros in 2021. At the same time, losses have more than doubled compared to the year before. The company says this is because of growth investments.

German fashion retailer About You, which falls under the wings of Otto Group, has released its full-year results. Early in 2021, the company went public. While sales have increased compared to the year before, the ecommerce player also more than doubled its losses.

Net loss more than doubled to €124 million

In the past year, About You made 1,7 billion euros in revenue – a year-on-year growth of almost 50 percent. At the same time, net losses ended up at over 124 million euros. That is more than double compared to 2020, when losses were nearly 60 million euros.

The adjusted EBITDA came in at -66.9 million euros.

The adjusted EBITDA came in at -66.9 million euros. That is at the lower end of About You’s predictions in March, when it released preliminary results.

Rest of Europe closes in on home markets

In the company’s press release, About You says the losses are due to growth investments. In 2021, the brand launched in Greece, Portugal and Norway. New logistics hubs were opened in Poland and France and the company announced its Global Shipping Platform, shipping to 100 countries across the world.

The markets outside of DACH grew over 65 percent.

The German retailer now operates in 23 markets outside of the DACH-region. These markets made more than 767 million euros in revenue – an increase of over 65 percent. To compare, the German, Austrian and Swiss markets grew around 27 percent to over 839 million euros. This means the Rest of Europe (RoE) is quickly closing in on the markets closer to home.

‘Prepared to withstand unsettled market dynamics’

Co-founder and Co-CEO Tarek Müller of About You says: “Fuelled by our relentless focus on growth initiatives in FY 2021/2022, we are well-prepared to further withstand the unsettled market dynamics.” He later adds: “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.”