Black Friday sales in 2020 were the best yet for Mosaic Brands, the business has revealed in a trading update.
The retail giant reported a record 100% increase in Black Friday sales versus the year prior.
The focus on digital has also seen the business grow its product offering online, expanding its SKU count to 350,000 – from 250,000 – across 30 categories in three months.
Overall, Group-wide online sales were up 31% on the prior comparable period (PCP) and now make up 17% of turnover.
According to Mosaic Brands CEO Scott Evans, embracing the shift in retail by reducing stores and boosting digital has helped the business deliver strong results.
"As stated in 2020 we are seeing profound and permanent shifts in the retail sector.
"We have moved swiftly to embrace this by realigning our rental costs, store footprint and rapidly building our online offer.
"A core strategy for the Group is also to focus on margin growth rather than chasing sales at any cost.
"This delivered an improvement on the -18.8% comparative sales in quarter one to finishing the half at -15%, he said.
Mosaic reported that it expects first half EBITDA to be between $40-$45 million, up between 22%-38% compared to the PCP.
This result was driven by the ongoing focus on margin improvement, digital expansion and JobKeeper payments, Mosaic reported.
"Overall our ongoing margin growth strategy resulted in a comparative margin drop of only 5.6% for the half," Evans said.
Cash holdings at 31 December were approximately $110 million, up 124% compared to the prior year, while Group net cash was $65 million compared to $4.5 million the year before.
"The result of the Group's better than expected trading is a strengthened balance sheet underpinned by cash holdings at its highest ever level and an overall improvement in the net asset position from 28 June 2020," Evans added.
"With the Group also holding circa 50% less stock than it did 12 months ago, Mosaic is well positioned for the second half," he said.
Despite the strong results, the business remains wary of COVID-19 and its potential impacts, with the upcoming vaccination program a positive sign for Mosaic's customer base, Evans said.
"The was a notable shift late in the trading period as our specific market segment avoided shopping centres due to renewed concerns regarding COVID-19.
"Despite this, overall December comparative sales proved resilient at 4% down on the previous year.
"The accelerated vaccination program recently announced by the Federal Government should see the vast majority of our core customer base, and a large number of our frontline team, vaccinated by the middle of the year.
"However recent weeks have been a most salient reminder that navigating some of the trading challenges we faced in 2020 - most notably COVID-19 - remain, and that future retail reform can't be paused," Evans said.