Asos' new boss Nick Beighton sticks by strategy of winning over young shoppers

The new boss of Asos has no plans to change the strategy he inherited from his predecessor, and wants to keep winning young fashion customers, even if it means losing older ones.

Nick Beighton, who replaced Nick Robertson earlier this year, told the Standard: “We will not be growing up with our customers and will remain forever young.”

His comments come as sales at the online retailer hit £1.15 billion, up 18%, with pre-tax profits up 1% to £47.5 million, finally laying to rest the previous year which saw three profit warnings, a company unable to compete with strong local currencies, and a fire at its Barnsley warehouse.

Beighton, who was previously chief operations officer, added that traffic through smartphones had overtaken traditional computer browsing on Asos for the first time.

Some 60% of global traffic was through mobiles, with 44% of orders on smartphones.

In the UK, more than half of all sales are made through smartphones.