In the current financial year to August 2022 it expects sales growth of 10% to 15%, against last year’s 20%. Adjusted pre-tax profits are forecast to be in the range of £110 million-£140 million, lower than the £193.6 million just recorded and what analysts had pencilled in.
That comes as trading returns to more normal conditions now that rivals with physical stores have reopened.
Asos added that there are “notable cost headwinds, including incremental inbound freight costs, Brexit duty annualisation, outbound delivery costs and labour cost inflation”.
The shares lost 288p, or 10.36%, to 2493p.
Despite that, the retailer has set out big growth targets for the next three to four years. It wants annual revenue to reach £7 billion, plans to invest up to £250 million per year in the business, and double the size of the combined UK and US business.
Outgoing chairman Adam Crozier told the Standard that Asos is “shifting from being a very successful high growth UK exporter” to its next stage of growth.
Crozier leaves at the end of November to join BT in the same role, and will be replaced by Asos’s senior independent non-executive director Ian Dyson.
