Online fashion leader Asos defies downturn

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"We're certainly not feeling the consumer downturn today," declared chief executive Nick Robertson as he announced that profits more than doubled last year. "But we're not being complacent with three-quarters of the year to go, including Christmas."

In the coming 12 months most analysts expect Asos to overtake Next to beome the No 1 fashion website in the UK. It already has 1.65 million registered customers and Robertson believes that the economic slowdown will speed up the migration of customers from physical stores to online shopping.

Certainly the first 13 weeks' trading of the new financial year - covering April, May and almost all of June - show Asos sales speeding up, not slowing down. This time last year they were up 85%, this year they are 95% ahead.

There are also indications that Asos customers are trading up, with the average spend by a customer on each shopping visit up by 24% in the past 12 months from £42.80 to £53.

Pre-tax profits soared 117% from £3.37 million to £7.3 million on revenues up 90% at £81 million in the year to the end of March.