Sunderland outdoor clothing company Berghaus has narrowed its losses after seeing strong revenue growth in the 海角视频 and Europe for a fourth year running.
The Pentland Brands-owned company, which designs and manufacturers outdoor clothing, footwear and accessories, has published results for 2022 showing turnover rose 16% from £70.2m to £81.1m. A geographical breakdown showed turnover in the 海角视频 rose over 10% to £70.5m while in Europe it leapt more than 63% to £10.3m.
The company narrowed its operating loss by 50% to £2.2m, despite the global supply chain crisis continuing to impact its operations, with lockdowns in some manufacturing facilities continuing through the first half of the year. Within the accounts, company secretary Timothy Cullen said: “With lockdowns in China continuing into early 2022, some of our factory partners continued to operate at a reduced capacity.
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“Despite our best efforts to keep things running smoothly, restrictions impacted the movement of orders to our freight forwarders. This meant we were unable to ship some orders until lockdown restrictions eased towards mid-2022. To minimise impact, we communicated the challenges with our suppliers and worked with them on finding solutions.”
Berghaus said it continued to benefit from investments in its DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) business, with sustained investment in the region allowing the brand to make a return to the European sporting goods sector’s major trade show, ISPO Munich, for the first time since 2018.
The brand also made significant investments to transform its design and innovation capacity and increase its product development capabilities. Berghaus’ regional merchandising function, which was created in 2022, manages the development of ‘hero’ commercial products and exclusive customer ranges, which it said allows the core team to focus on developing more innovative outdoor gear.
The company said it remains committed to taking action to reduce its impact on the planet and during the year, it started promoting its free repair service as Repairhaus, which extended the lives of thousands of products. Berghaus also backed organisations and projects that improve accessibility to the outdoors for underrepresented groups, supporting The Outward Bound Trust, the It’s Great Out There Coalition, Millimetres 2 Mountains and Black Girls Hike. The initiatives contributed to the brand’s recent B Corp certification.
The accounts also detail how it has made efforts to help employees through the cost of living crisis.
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In the accounts, Mr Cullen said: “We recognise the significant challenges that many people are currently facing when it comes to cost-of- living crisis and we care about the impact this is having on individuals’ ability to pay bills and meet basic requirements. In response, Pentland Brands applied a 5% in-year salary increase to help its lower earners (applied from July 2022). They then agreed a further 7% annual salary increase for all employees from 2023, bringing forward the application of this from April 2023, to January 2023. Pentland Brands also introduced a package of support for employees including money coaching and financial education sessions.”
Following publication of the accounts, Charlie Pym, senior vice president at Berghaus, said: “Above all, our aim is to make cutting-edge gear that helps our consumers get into the outdoors, and we campaign to open up those opportunities for everyone, whatever their background. The launch of our all-new Extrem collection in 2022 proved to be a big success and once again put Berghaus at the forefront of outdoor product innovation. It was backed up by some excellent developments in other categories, which delivered a great balance across the whole range, combining high performance with commercial appeal.
“Despite complex global challenges, we’re reassured by our strong sales growth which proves the importance of investments in our people, platforms and products. We’re particularly proud of our B Corp certification, which demonstrates our commitment not just to being a leader in the outdoor industry, but to taking genuine action so that more people can spend time in nature that is protected.”