The Very Group Announces Strong Christmas Trading

• Very UK retail sales grew +3.4% year-on-year, supporting Group retail sales growth of +2.1% year-on-year. 
• Very UK’s performance was consistently ahead of the UK online non-food retail market and represents growth in market share during the period.*
• Toys, gifts and beauty (+8.8% YoY) and electrical (+7.4% YoY) were the standout categories. 
• Games consoles and perfume were among the best-selling items. 
• In December 2023, the Group successfully extended the ‘AS’ and ‘AJ’ notes of its UK securitisation facility to 1 January 2027 and increased them by £50.0m to £1.375bn without any changes to note margins. 

The Very Group, which operates digital retailer Very, today (11 January 2024) announces its Christmas and Black Friday period trading results for the seven weeks to 22 December 2023.  

Lionel Desclée, Group CEO at The Very Group, said:  

“Our team delivered a brilliant range of products, strong pricing, an engaging new marketing campaign, and an improved online experience to give families everything they needed this Christmas. 

“As expected in the current economic climate, consumers were on the lookout for amazing deals. We served these to existing customers and plenty of new customers during our Black Friday campaign with games consoles, wireless earbuds and perfume among our best sellers. 

“Whilst we are pleased with these results, we also know that the year ahead will be challenging for all retailers. However, our operating model, which combines multi-category digital retail and flexible ways to pay, will remain resilient and continue to provide families with a one-stop-shop for everything they need.” 

Very UK highlights 

• Very UK retail sales grew +3.4% YoY.  
  • Toys, gifts and beauty increased +8.8% YoY.
  • Electrical was up +7.4% YoY.
  • Home was down –2.9% YoY.
  • Fashion and sports was down –3.9% YoY, but with good growth in premium fashion, which increased +14.7% YoY. 
• Among the top-selling items by sales value were:  
  • PlayStation 5 console 
  • Xbox Series X console   
  • Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone air fryer 
• Among the top-selling items by volume were:  
  • Marc Jacobs perfumes 
  • Barbie Dream Boat 
  • Meta Quest 2 virtual reality headset  
• Very UK’s performance was ahead of the online non-food retail market and represents growth in market share during the period.*

Group performance 

• Including Littlewoods and Very Ireland, Group retail sales grew +2.1% YoY.  
• In December 2023, the Group successfully extended the ‘AS’ and ‘AJ’ notes of its UK securitisation facility to 1 January 2027 and increased them by £50.0m to £1.375bn without any changes to note margins. Having also successfully refinanced the ‘B’, ‘C1’ and ‘C2’ notes in September 2023, the Group’s total securitisation facility now stands at £1.635bn and has been operating for two decades.

Operational highlights 

Highly automated fulfilment operation  

• 6.9m items processed at Skygate, Very’s highly automated fulfilment centre.  
• 205,000 items processed on 27 November 2023, the busiest day of Very’s peak period.  

Launch of new ‘Let’s make it sparkle’ brand platform 

• Unveiled Very’s new brand platform – ‘Let’s make it sparkle’ – via a joyful Christmas campaign that introduced the retailer’s new brand characters, Kerry, Terry and Cherry, the flamboyant flamingos.  
• Kantar ranked Very’s Christmas ad as the retailer’s most successful ad to date and the second most persuasive Christmas ad of 2023 across all industries. 
• The ad was also rated ‘exceptional’ by System1 across all measurement categories, consistently above the retail average and in the top 1.3% of all ads tracked.  

Source : The Very Group plc

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