Luxury streetwear retailer End Clothing was unable to ship orders to customers after logistical errors caused by a newly installed automated fulfilment system, resulting in the need to write off £12m worth of stock.
According to reports in The Times, glitches with the new system, which was introduced last year, had “adverse effects on both our operations and customers’ ordering experience”. In turn there were additional costs to support order fulfilment and a one-off provision against stock that could not be sold.
Pre-tax profits were down by 76% to £9m in the 52 weeks to the end of March. The retailer has been able to recoup and achieve double-digit revenue growth in the fourth quarter, raising yearly revenue up by 1.4% to £221m.
A spokeswoman told The Times: “Despite challenging consumer retail conditions, End is performing well and continues to scale its operations to serve our global customer base. We remain focused on expanding our capabilities as we continue our transition into a modern, technology-led and scalable business.”
The menswear retailer also stressed that it was “confident that the inventory management processes and system issues” were “now in good order”.
