Seasalt enjoys record Christmas, store revenue up 24 percent

Seasalt has reported a record Christmas of trading with sales across online, stores, and through marketplace partnerships up 15 percent year-on-year.

The Cornwall-based fashion and lifestyle brand said store sales performed particularly well, up 24 percent year-on-year in the five weeks to December 31.

The strong in-store trading caps off a record 12 months for Seasalt’s physical stores, with like-for-like sales up 12 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels from 2019.

Online sales were down 2 percent in the holiday season, but the company hailed a “strong” result, noting that online trading conditions were “increasingly challenging” in the last 6 months and more significantly impacted by the cost-of-living crisis than physical stores.

Challenges ahead

Seasalt said despite it being “reassuring” that online sales were up on a 12 month year-over-year basis, it expects the channel will “continue to be affected by wider economic uncertainty through 2023”.

On a brighter note, the company said its partnerships with retailers like Marks & Spencer, Next, and Zalando went from “strength to strength” over the holiday period, with sales up 57 percent.

“Although we have traded very well during the last 12 months, we expect the next six months to be tough,” said Seasalt's finance chief Malcolm Macdonald in a statement.

He continued: “We will continue to invest in our planned digital transformation and in expanding our international presence but will otherwise be taking all necessary actions to manage our costs very carefully to ensure we are in the best possible position to accelerate our growth again later in 2023 when consumer confidence improves.”

Seasalt, which focuses predominantly on womenswear, also said its menswear range will be “significantly” expanded in 2023 following the success of its reintroduction in 2022.