The Very Group has reported a robust set of full-year results for the 52 weeks ending 28 June 2025 – including its highest-ever earnings margin at 14.7%.
The largest UK-headquartered integrated pure-play digital retailer and flexible payment provider, which operates Very and Littlewoods, delivered a 15.9% increase in adjusted EBITDA to £307.1 million. Its performance was driven by strict control over operating costs, a strong showing from its financial services arm, and a strategic pivot toward higher-margin retail categories.
While overall Group revenue dipped 1.8% to £2.09 billion, reflecting a strategic focus on profitability over volume, Very UK’s revenue remained broadly stable at £1.83 billion. In line with current market trends, the Home category was a significant contributor to the Group’s success, growing by 9.9% thanks to a focus on higher-margin products.
This helped offset declines in Fashion and Sports (-3.7%) and Electricals (-2.0%), which again reflects broader market trends that have seen consumer confidence in these categories weaken over recent months. The company’s focus instead on Home (+5.2%) and Beauty (+4.3%) demonstrates Very’s agility as a business, with its multi-category model enabling it to adapt quickly to changing consumer priorities.
The Group’s net promoter score rose to a record 42, reflecting improvements in customer experience through personalised in-app offers and richer product content. Notably, operating costs fell by £36.4 million, reducing to 22.3% of revenue – the lowest in the Group’s history, despite the challenging economic backdrop that has seen many retailers struggling with additional purchasing and labour costs.
Unique positioning as a business
CEO Robbie Feather attributed the Group’s success to its customer-centric approach and unique positioning as both a digital retailer and flexible payments provider. The company has been 100% digital since merging heritage brands into Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com in 2015. “FY25 was a year of real progress for Very,” Feather said. “Despite a challenging economic backdrop, we’re delighted with our performance, driven by our unrelenting focus on improving all aspects of our offer and customer experience.”
Feather pointed to several strategic milestones, including the relaunch of Very’s retail media proposition and the launch of HelloStudio – an in-house creative agency leveraging AI-assisted design – as net contributors to Very’s success. These initiatives, alongside ongoing upgrades to apps and websites and the final stages of a multi-year cloud infrastructure transformation, are part of Very’s strategy to position itself as a tech-forward ecommerce leader.
Balancing retail with financial services
As highlighted by Feather, Very’s success as an online retailer is in no small part due to its integration of ecommerce and financial services, making flexible financing a cornerstone of its strategy. In the UK, a growing number of consumers are turning to flexible financing (using platforms such as Klarna) to spread the cost of retail purchases, particularly for high ticket items. Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is another growing trend – 42% of UK adults have used BNPL services, up from 36% in 2023 – equating to 22.6 million people.
Affordability has been at the heart of the Very proposition, right from its Littlewoods days, when it was known on the High Street as the home of affordable fashion and homeware items. Now, its stated purpose is to “help families get more out of life through its combination of 2,000 big brands, a simple online experience, and flexible ways to pay via its Very Pay platform.”
By offering market-leading payment options, including instalment plans and credit via its Very Pay platform, which is designed to help families manage purchases over time, Very is continuing to reach out to that key audience of budget-conscious consumers. And, with 4.4 million active customers, 1.4 million daily website visits, and 42 million items delivered annually, this strategy appears to be working very well for Very – as indeed the latest financial results show.
Feather concluded: “We look back at FY25 with pride, and I am confident that we have the right team, strategy and foundations in place to drive our future growth.”
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