Oasis: Fashion brand turns profit for first time in three years as it goes upmarket

Exclusive: Sales have risen 5.4 per cent, turning a £0.3m loss into profits of £5.6m

Oasis has 406 stores across the UK (Rex)

The fashion brand Oasis has turned a profit for the first time in three years as new stores with better-quality dresses and shirts, and fewer discounted items, wooed back customers.

Sales at the retailer, which has 406 stores across the country, jumped 5.4 per cent to £171.9m in the year to the end of February, turning a £0.3m pre-tax loss last time into a £5.6m profit, according to accounts filed at Companies House.

Bosses will now turn their attentions to sister brand Warehouse, where sales dropped from £137.3m to £130.3m over the same period for a pre-tax loss of £3.8m.

However, the Oasis and Warehouse group, run by Liz Evans, reported a profit after tax of £1.1m thanks to Oasis’s strong performance. Both businesses have completed a costly demerger from their parent company Aurora Fashions, which also owns Coast.

Oasis had been in a spiral of discounting and reduced quality, which the new management team has started to address. According to the accounts, £3.4m was spent upgrading the retailer’s flagship stores, leading to an 18 per cent increase in sales at those outlets.

A new flagship store was also opened recently on London’s Tottenham Court Road, with an in-store café, prosecco bar and beauty salon.

Warehouse continues to struggle but is hoping the hiring of brand director Alasdhair Willis – the husband of fashion designer Stella McCartney – will help improve its image. Both brands are also pushing hard online, with Oasis’s web sales up 32 per cent on the year, representing 15 per cent of total sales.

Coast, which is run by Kate Bostock– the former womenswear boss of Marks and Spencer – and Andrew Skinner, is in year two of its turnaround and narrowed losses by 22 per cent to £10.3m. Bosses reckon the brand should break even in this financial year.