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The retailer, which also owns Pretty Little Thing, said it expects earnings to continue to improve

Online retail group Debenhams has announced a return to earnings profits for the past six months as trading gathered strength.

The retailer, which also owns the Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing brands, said it anticipates earnings will continue to strengthen following cost-cutting measures as it pushes ahead with its turnaround strategy.

Boss Dan Finley said: “Our turnaround continues at pace.

“This is a strong first half and, importantly, one where growth accelerated as we went through it.”

Debenhams informed shareholders that gross merchandise value (GMV), the group’s preferred sales measure, rose by 1.8% in the six months to 31 August, compared with a year earlier.

It confirmed that growth of 0.5% in the first quarter picked up pace to 2.9% in the latest quarter.

The performance was particularly buoyed by the Debenhams brand, which posted a 14.1% sales uplift, while Pretty Little Thing, Boohoo and Karen Millen all moved back into growth territory.

The retail firm also disclosed reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £20 million for the half-year, reversing a £3 million earnings loss from a year earlier.

It attributed this to an 83.5% drop in exceptional costs to £4 million.

Management said they anticipate a “continued material improvement” in earnings and a return to profitability for the year.

Debenhams confirmed it remains on course with plans to deliver £100 million in cost savings by next year. The group also revealed its ambition to bring down its net debt from £102 million to “negligible” levels following a series of asset disposals in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, Debenhams announced the sale of women’s fashion label Nasty Gal to WSG brands for 16 million US dollars (£11.9 million).

This followed the company’s announcement the previous week of the sale of its Sheffield warehouse to Primark for £90 million, with the retail giant intending to use the facility to support home deliveries.

Mr Finley added: “With the cost programme ahead of plan, lease costs falling and net debt down year on year, we are reiterating our guidance of double-digit adjusted EBITDA growth and free cash flow in full-year 2027.

“Since the half-year end, the Sheffield distribution centre and Nasty Gal disposals mark a further significant step in reducing leverage, and we now expect net debt to be negligible at our February 2027 year end.”

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Manchester-founded company floated on the London Stock Exchange last year

The Beauty Tech Group has more than tripled its first-half profits as surging demand for at-home beauty devices drove sales up by over 40 per cent.

The owner of Currentbody Skin, ZIIP Beauty and Tria Laser posted pre-tax profits of £17.5m for the six months ending June, up from £5m the previous year. Revenues jumped 44.3 per cent to £79.7m, from £55.2m, while gross profit increased 52.8 per cent to £51.3m.

The Manchester-founded firm, which floated on the London Stock Exchange last October at a valuation of some £300m, has capitalised on rising consumer appetite for devices that bring treatments formerly confined to beauty salons into people’s homes.

Its most recognisable products include CurrentBody’s LED face masks, which employ varying wavelengths of light in treatments designed to enhance skin quality.

The Alderley Edge-based group said first-half trading had exceeded expectations and now anticipates full-year revenues of at least £170m, maintaining the upgraded guidance it issued in July, as reported by City AM.

It also lifted its expectations for underlying earnings, though the company stopped short of providing fresh statutory profit forecasts.

The business closed June with £52m in net cash after accounting for liabilities and zero debt, up from £40.8m at the end of 2025, and has separately unveiled plans to repurchase up to £20m of its own shares. No interim dividend will be distributed.

“At-home beauty technology is the fastest-growing part of the beauty market and we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of it through our three distinct brands: CurrentBody Skin, ZIIP Beauty and Tria Laser”, founder and chief executive Laurence Newman said.

“We have entered the second half, typically our strongest period of trading, with real momentum and a significant launch pipeline”.

The figures arrive less than a year after Beauty Tech Group made its London market debut, in one of comparatively few notable floats on the struggling exchange last year.

The business raised approximately £29m through the IPO, enabling it to eliminate external debt. Its inaugural annual results since listing, released in April, revealed turnover had climbed 39.4 per cent to £141m in 2025, while gross profit jumped 53.9 per cent to £88.3m.

Roughly 80 per cent of its sales were generated beyond the UK and Ireland last year, with the group trading across more than 90 markets.

Its swift expansion has been driven by Currentbody Skin, which has helped transform the somewhat disconcerting spectacle of an illuminated face mask from something akin to a science fiction prop into a staple of beauty regimes and social media platforms.

Currentbody introduced its first LED light therapy mask in 2018, when persuading customers to fasten a glowing contraption to their face demanded considerably more justification. “It was definitely a real challenge in the early days” Emily Buckwell, associate communications director at Currentbody, told City AM ahead of the results.

“The science on LED light therapy was already there, but consumer awareness wasn’t, so it was about finding the right balance between educating people and normalising the idea of actually wearing the mask”.

The firm has since developed a third generation of its LED range, set to launch in the second half of the year following two years of research and testing.

Beauty Tech Group is also investing in its own laboratory, due to open in early 2027, while research conducted alongside the University of Manchester is exploring how skin changes following the use of at-home LED devices.

ZIIP Beauty, meanwhile, has completed manufacturing adjustments ahead of a new product range rolling out in the second half of the year, as the group also moves to bring its European warehousing operations in-house.

The company remains confident there is substantial room for growth within the category. Beauty technology currently accounts for just one per cent of consumer beauty spending across its core markets, according to the group.

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