Hotter Shoes posts double-digit revenue growth in first quarter

The parent company of Hotter Shoes said the UK footwear retailer saw double-digit year-on-year revenue growth in the first quarter.

While Unbound Group didn’t provide exact figures, it said Hotter Shoes “performed strongly” in the first quarter of the year as it improved its gross margin and saw its active customer base grow.

Earlier this year, Unbound Group moved from the London Stock Exchange’s main market to its sub-market, AIM.

The move was part of a broader rebranding of the group, formerly called Electra Private Equity, as it repositioned itself as an online-first multi-brand retail platform targeted at the 55+ demographic.

Unbound Group said Thursday it is seeing the benefits of its omnichannel strategy with the performance of the retail estate being “especially pleasing”.

Challenges ahead

The group achieved the Q1 performance “despite the macroeconomic backdrop of rising inflation, supply chain challenges” and the impact of Russia's war in Ukraine.

It said its outlook in this regard “continues to look challenging for the remainder of this financial year”.

The group said it continues to mitigate some of these risks and costs are being “tightly managed”.

Unbound Group CEO Ian Watson was upbeat on the results as he said the development of the group is “gathering pace”.

Watson also said Thursday that the group is “engaged in positive discussions with a number of additional potential partners that will further develop our footwear and apparel offer and launch our wellness proposition”.

He said this will be followed by “other target categories in phased implementations”.