N Brown Group, and its principal subsidiary, JD Williams and Company Ltd, is a leading internet and catalogue home shopping company, with over 140 years of experience in the distance shopping market. Our extensive ranges of value products, principally clothing, footwear, household and electrical goods, are carefully targeted at the right customers and are provided through whichever channels to market our customers demand. In addition we provide financial services to our customer base, including flexible credit plans.

http://www.nbrown.co.uk/

23 Jul Shore Capital N/A Buy

Description Div for Period
(pence per share) Ex Dividend Record Date Payment Date
Prelim 8.23 26 June 2013 28 June 2013 26 July 2013

FLASH: Credit Suisse lifts N Brown to outperform from neutral, target raised from 455p to 620p

http://www.stockmarketwire.com/article/4654342/FLASH-Credit-Suisse-lifts-N-Brown-to-outperform-from-neutral-target-raised-from-455p-to-620p.html#sthash.ug6ahf07.dpuf

Well done Bones, if you are in this one.

FTSE 250 movers: N Brown jumps after broker upgrade

Wed, 21 Aug 2013

Internet shopping group N Brown was a high riser today after Credit Suisse raised its rating for the stock from 'neutral' to 'outperform' and lifted its target price from 455p to 620p.

N Brown, whose brands include Simply Be, Jacamo and Figleaves, has seen its stock surge by around 50% so far this year but Credit Suisse still sees more upside given its potential to "transform this traditional credit-driven mail order business into a more competitive and profitable apparel company with scalability overseas".

Brown (N) Group: Citi takes target price from 435p to 525p, while staying with its neutral rating.

Publishes its trading statement Thurs 16 Jan, Shares seems to think another one unlikely to disappoint.

Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 557.00p +6.10%

Brown (N) Group: UBS lowers target price from 565p to 535p and downgrades from neutral to sell.

Results out May 1st -- unlikely to disappoint.

http://data.beaufortsharedealing.com/broker-views/BWNG/Brown-N-Group-news

Director Deals - Brown (N) Group PLC (BWNG)

BFN

Andrew Higginson, Chairman, bought 415 shares in the company on the 28th April 2014 at a price of 510.50p. The Director now holds 86,514 shares.

Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

Full Year Results for the year ended 1 March 2014

http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4802348

N Brown hits record profits and eyes 'more ambitious' future

Thu, 01 May 2014

A strong early performance in the US helped online clothing retailer N Brown post a year of record profits, with new Chief Executive Angela Spindler confident of reaching double-digit sales growth in 2016.

The FTSE 250 company, which specialises in plus-sized and middle-aged fashion, generated a profit before tax and fair value adjustments up 5.3% to £100.1m as sales climbed 6.4% to £834.9m. Adjusted earnings per share declined 1.4% to 27.9p, incorporating a higher tax charge as previously guided by management.

First-half growth of 8% slowed to 4.9% through the second as some sales were foregone due to a tightening of its credit policy and a pausing of expansion in the third quarter in the US.

A lot had been achieved in the year while the group entered a period of transition under Spindler, who was appointed last July.

N Brown is investing in the further development of its multi-channel offer, increasing customer recruitment, revitalising major brands and driving international expansion for future growth and is still planning to step up the pace of change in the business.

Spindler was encouraged by the results of the early changes but alluded to an even "more ambitious future".

She was particularly encouraged by the strong performances from its 'younger' brands, focused on ages 30-plus, primarily driven by Simply Be and Jacamo, which were the biggest drivers of growth in absolute terms as they begun a store roll-out to complement their online strength.

"Going forward the benefits of our strategic initiatives will start to come through as we look to achieve a double-digit rate of sales growth during the financial year ending February 2016," she said.

"I am even more convinced that we have a great platform and you'll see us build on that strong base at an even faster pace as the implementation of our plan gathers momentum."

Follow the update, broker Shore Capital held its 2016 forecasts but downgraded its 2015 forecasts, reflecting the lower base of earnings, an anticipated £1m cost and trading losses associated with a flagship store on Oxford Street in London that is due to open in September, plus around £1m of annual double running costs as management has now chosen to maintain investment in existing websites through the period of the infrastructure improvement programme.

It said this was "still early days" in an "exciting" medium term growth story in light of Spindler's pledge of double-digit growth.

Shares in the company were up 2.9% to 528p at 09:05 on Thursday.

1 May Credit Suisse 620.00 Outperform
1 May N+1 Singer 630.00 Buy

Sunday Telegraph

The Questor column takes a look at retailer of 'clothes targeted at older and fuller-figured shoppers', N Brown.


Results this week were solid but growth in earnings is slowing and pre-tax profits were up just 1 per cent.


The Jacamo and High & Mighty company has a new chief executive, Angela Spindler, previously the managing director of Debenhams and ex-George at Asda.


She wants to beef up the companies US sales, Questor says, and is set to unveiled as many as 16 new stores by the end of this year.


But sales are slowing, first half like-for-like sales increased by 7.8 per cent, but by the second half that had slowed to 4.8 per cent.

The shares have doubled during the past two years but are down 5 per cent this year. Questor says that expected earnings per share of 31p leave the shares looking expensive , trading on 16.6 times earnings. Broker downgrades could come - sell.

Brown N Group: Investec reduces target price from 700p to 550p, while leaving its buy recommendation unchanged.

Interim Management Statement

RNS


RNS Number : 8672J

Brown (N.) Group PLC

18 June 2014






18 June 2014

N Brown Group plc



Interim Management Statement for the 15 Weeks to 14 June 2014



Fashion that fits



N Brown Group, the online, catalogue and stores retailer, today announces a quarterly trading update for the 15 weeks to 14 June 2014.



Highlights:



· Total group revenues were up 2.6%, including like-for-like growth of 2.5%. This is in line with our plan for the quarter.

o Performance of Simply Be and Jacamo up 6% and 10% respectively.

o Store like-for-like sales were strong at +20%.

o The "Famous Five" Home categories were up 10% year on year.

o Demand in the USA was up 15%.



· Strategic transitional period

o Reduced participation of non-core home and electrical ranges.

o Re-phasing of marketing spend to an in-season model

o Short-term impact on sales - the last six weeks of the quarter have significantly increased (high single digits).



· Online penetration is at 58% - fuelled by further service improvements.



· UK and Turkey-sourced Fast Fashion launched for Simply Be for the first time.



· TV favourite Lorraine Kelly announced as brand ambassador for JD Williams.



· Seven further Simply Be/Jacamo dual branded stores opening, creating a total of 240 jobs in Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Norwich and Exeter and our Oxford Street store, which opens in September.





Angela Spindler, Chief Executive, commented:

"We are in a period of transition to move us toward our mission to be 'the leading Global retailer famous for making shopping for fashion easy and enjoyable regardless of size'. We have stepped up the pace of change and we are making progress. We are modernising the business, broadening our appeal and refocusing on our differentiated proposition - fashion that fits. Best of all our customers are already noticing these improvements, as we can see from the performance through the quarter. We have improved the quality of our sales and are on track with our plans for the year as a whole".





TRADING UPDATE



Total group revenues in the period were up 2.6%, including like-for-like growth of 2.5%. This is in line with our plan for the quarter. As a result of re-phasing our marketing investment year-on-year our performance strengthened considerably through the quarter.



Growth over the period was supported by the performance of our younger titles, Simply Be and Jacamo which were up 6% and 10% respectively. Online penetration remains strong at 58%, fuelled by further service improvements, including the recent introduction of Sunday deliveries. Our stores continue to trade well, up 20% on a like-for-like basis and have now annualised on the introduction of Jacamo to the footprint.



We are in the process of contemporising our proposition to broaden our appeal and accelerate our growth potential. This means changing the way we go to market. In the quarter these changes have impacted in 5 key areas:



Stronger Product Mix



The planned shift from high ticket electrical items and ranges which attract disproportionate levels of bad debt and fraud is already improving the quality of our sales. These changes reduced revenue in the quarter in line with previous guidance of a full year impact of £13m and our gross margin and bad debt ratios have improved as predicted. Our strategy is to recover these sales over time via our "Famous Five" Home and Gift categories (Bedding, Home Decor, Family Gifts, Outdoor Living and Homewares) and it is pleasing to report that these areas were up 10% in the quarter. We will start to annualise on the changes from October 2014.



Adjusting the Marketing Programme



During the quarter we have re-phased our marketing spend to enable a shift to "in-season" versus "pre-season" investment as we accelerate our migration to multi-channel processes. As a result marketing spend during the period has changed year-on-year. This has impacted the shape of our sales growth in this transitional year with broadly flat sales across March and April and a higher growth rate for May and June.



Whilst we have reduced spending on Direct Mail in the quarter, we have continued our investment in digital recruitment. As a result, growth in the customer base is healthy - up 3.5% year-on-year.



Modernising JD Williams



Our plans for the changes to the JD Williams offer are well underway. We are moving to a more contemporary model, in terms of product and presentation and at the same time adjusting our marketing to broaden our appeal. We are re-launching mid-life ladies fashion under the JD Williams brand for the Autumn Winter season and are in development on new advertising campaigns, starring our brand ambassador, Lorraine Kelly. In addition to the adjustment to the seasonal phasing of our marketing spend we have also re-phased an element of our JD Williams marketing to the second half to secure strong support for the re-launch. Whilst this has impacted first quarter revenue growth, with JD Williams brand sales down 1% in the quarter, the exit rate from the period was positive.



Customers Responding Positively to Cash Payment Option



Our other key strategic initiative in the quarter was the successful introduction of the cash payment option. This has performed in line with our expectations and has stabilised with 30% of new customers opting to pay by cash. Whilst this has not, as yet, materially influenced the overall rate of recruitment, we do expect to see the step-up in recruitment as we adjust our marketing approach during the second half.



Driving International Expansion



A dedicated International team is now in place to drive our Simply Be business in the USA. In the last month we have launched various on-line marketing initiatives and by the end of June will have launched a credit offer and loyalty scheme to drive customer order values and retention levels. Demand in the quarter was up 15% with accelerated momentum coming from the new activities.



Overall, we are pleased with our performance in the quarter. Our strategic initiatives have been implemented well and are performing in line with our expectations, improving the quality of sales and benefiting underlying margin and bad debt ratios as predicted. We are on track to deliver on our plans for the year as a whole.



Financial Position



There have been no material events, transactions or changes in the financial position of the Group in the quarter, other than as outlined in this statement.

Broker spotlight, proactive investor -Speaking of retailers lets switch to online, and no, it's not ASOS, but Brown (N) Group (LON:BWNG), which Credit Suisse rates 'outperform'.

It reckons the benefits from the firm's investments will start to materialise and its valuation will move to a 10% premium to retail peers, as the cheapest online retailer offering 22% upside to Credit Suisse's target price of 518p - down from a previous 620p.

Indeed, this is the year of investment, notes the analyst, with internal infrastructure of the business, expansion in the US and a brand refresh in the UK in focus.

He adds: "The stock has fallen around 30% since the early March high of 600p, now trading at 14x 12m FWD PE, particularly low for an e-commerce retailer."

Shares of N Brown have fallen almost 30% this year and now offer good value, Midas said in The Mail on Sunday. Chief Executive Angela Spindler has been in post for a year and has cut the outsize clothing retailer’s number of brands to three. She is also opening more stores because even if shoppers like to buy online they often want to try them in a shop first. Within a few years almost all her target customers will be within a 45-minute drive. She has accelerated N Brown’s move into the US as part of a general injection of life.

Business in US sucks . . . so say some. . . . look at M&S (?), Tesco. er BP (!), and now NBrown - will Execs never learn . . . . just because it's a big country doesn't mean it's easy - it's more like taking Europe as a single place . . . too many GB firms fail in USA . . . so why risk it?
EDIT.(17Sept2014). What I don't understand is ...if this is such a good investment, why has the sp taken a dive during Sept14? Could it be that some don't like the policy of opening more retail outlets? OR are the figures less robust than the Co is saying?
Maybe it because other Retail multiples are suffering downturn, although that is mainly put down to "Internet" - yet it seems odd that most ( All?), Internet Business is offering lower prices, even though some providers still have traditional Retail Outlets to support.
As I understand it, NB is playing it each-way. Mid Sept14 about 385p
EDIT(8April2017)_ sp 212....bottom was 160 - and TV ads stopped -

Sharecast - UBS has raised its rating for retailer N Brown from 'neutral' to 'buy', saying that the business offers "online growth at a high street price".

"N Brown has de-rated significantly in the last few months. With trading expected to improve in the second quarter we think this has been overdone and investors will re-engage with the stock once it prints better like-for-like sales," the bank said.