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Fashion Retailer ASOS Sinks After Warning on 2024 Sales 

A smartphone with ASOS app, a keyboard and a shopping cart are seen in front of a displayed ASOS logo in this illustration picture taken October 13, 2020. (Reuters)
A smartphone with ASOS app, a keyboard and a shopping cart are seen in front of a displayed ASOS logo in this illustration picture taken October 13, 2020. (Reuters)
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Fashion Retailer ASOS Sinks After Warning on 2024 Sales 

A smartphone with ASOS app, a keyboard and a shopping cart are seen in front of a displayed ASOS logo in this illustration picture taken October 13, 2020. (Reuters)
A smartphone with ASOS app, a keyboard and a shopping cart are seen in front of a displayed ASOS logo in this illustration picture taken October 13, 2020. (Reuters)

Online fashion retailer ASOS warned sales would fall again in 2024, hitting its shares, though the British company said its ongoing turnaround meant growth would return the following year.

ASOS said on Wednesday sales would fall between 5% and 15% in its fiscal year to September 2024, behind forecasts and sending its shares down 10%, continuing a difficult run for the stock which has shed 50% over the last six months.

Shore Capital called the sales downgrade "worrying".

ASOS Chief Executive José Antonio Ramos Calamonte is a year into his plan to revive the company, once a poster child for the online fashion revolution which slumped post-pandemic due to fierce competition and a problem with excess inventory.

Casting 2024 as a transition year, ASOS said that historic excess stock would continue to drag on sales and profitability, but for 2025 it expected a return to growth with a core earnings margin around pre-COVID levels.

Most clothes retailers have suffered from Britain's wet summer and then an unseasonably warm September which hit sales of autumnal clothing, but some have fared better than others.

Next on Wednesday reported better-than-expected third-quarter sales, while, like ASOS, online fashion retailer Boohoo cut its outlook in October.

Calamonte said he was encouraged by sales of fashion lines sold under ASOS's new commercial model and the company would be well set by 2025, once it was free from the hangover of its previous set-up and old stock.

The CEO said he was "very happy" with ASOS's financial position amid media speculation it could sell the Topshop brand it has owned since 2021 to boost its balance sheet.

"We don't comment on rumours and speculation," he told reporters.

For its last financial year, the 53 weeks to Sept. 3, ASOS reported an adjusted loss before interest and tax of 29 million pounds versus a 44 million pounds profit the year before.

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Fashion

Goosebumps and Stars as Paris Fashion Week Kicks Off

Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
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Goosebumps and Stars as Paris Fashion Week Kicks Off

Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Kendall Jenner at the L'Oreal show on the first night of Paris Fashion Week. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

Hollywood stars braved the rain to open Paris Fashion Week at L'Oreal's giant outdoor show Monday as rumors swirl of musical chairs at the top of fabled French brands.
The cosmetics giant persuaded Jane Fonda -- in snazzy silver sneakers -- Kendall Jenner, Eva Longoria and several of its other brand ambassadors to walk in a spectacular public show in front of the gilded glory of the Opera Garnier.
With invites to the big luxury shows strictly limited to the glitterati and fashion insiders, L'Oreal said it wanted to democratize the glamor of fashion week.
Introduced by singer Celine Dion, the "Walk Your Worth" show also featured Andie MacDowell, Indian star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, models with prosthetic limbs and Brazilian supermodel Luma Grothe proudly showing off her bump.
"The idea is to let the public see for themselves the beautiful clothes, settings and people that they would never normally have access to," L'Oreal's Paris director general Delphine Viguier told AFP.
Fashion's young guard had earlier endured a stormy start to the nine-day extravaganza -- Rising French star Victor Weinsanto staged his spring-summer show on the wet and windy roof of the Pompidou Centre museum, his fishnet and mesh ensembles created around Croatian drag queen Le Filip being tested by the elements.
The Paris shows started as falling profits at the two luxury giants LVMH and Kering have sent a shudder through the industry, fueling talk of a "Game of Thrones" among top designers.
Celine's Hedi Slimane and Simon Porte Jacquemus -- the young French designer who made tiny handbags and tiny everything else a thing -- are being talked of to fill Karl Lagerfeld's empty chair at Chanel after Virginie Viard, who took the reins after the death of "the Kaiser" in 2019, bowed out in June.
Hotly anticipated
Tongues are also likely to wag at the spring-summer shows over where John Galliano might go, with his contract at Maison Margiela nearing its end.
The first shows from the big-hitter French houses will come Tuesday with Dior and Saint Laurent, with a packed calendar confirming Paris's crushing dominance over rivals Milan, New York and London.
And there is no let-up at the end: Chanel opens the final day on October 1 by returning to the vast Grand Palais, the scene of some of Lagerfeld's most jaw-dropping shows, after an absence of four years.
The house is shelling out 30 million euros ($33 million) to stage its shows at the iconic Belle Epoque edifice, which reopened after a major facelift to host fencing and taekwondo at the Paris Olympics and Paralympic Games.
With Viard -- long Lagerfeld's right-hand woman -- gone, observers expect a collection drawn from Chanel classics.
In contrast, there could well be fireworks from Alessandro Michele, the mercurial Italian designer who transformed Gucci, who may be keen to make his mark with his debut show for Valentino.
Equally anticipated is French duo Coperni, who are staging their show at Disneyland Paris on the final night, with an after party in the theme park that promises to go on into the wee hours.
The brand's founders, Arnaud Vaillant and Sebastien Meyer, pulled off a coup with their outfit for Belgian singer Angele for the Olympics closing ceremony, and are clearly in a mood to celebrate.
Another hot duo, the Olsen twins, the Los Angeles child actors turned designers, have kept their place for their luxury line The Row in fashion week proper thanks to a cash injection from the owners of Chanel and L'Oreal.
Paris will, however, be without Givenchy this time, with its new British designer Sarah Burton, a stalwart at Alexander McQueen for a quarter of a century, just made creative director.