Urban Outfitters sees profits soar to €2.2m

URBAN Outfitters, the uber-trendy American retailer saw pre-tax profits in Ireland soar from €550,000 to €2.2m in the year to the end of January 2009.

Turnover increased from €7.5m to €8.6m at its two Dublin stores.

The company’s wage bill in the year was just over €1m, an increase of 7% on the previous year. The company employed 69 people in the year, an increase of three from 2007.

No dividends were paid during the year or proposed at year end.

The accounts read: “The company has developed an established place for itself within its market and will continue developments in this area.”

Gross profit was up from €2.4m to €3.4m. The firm’s rent in the year fell slightly from €802,308 to €800.448.

Urban Outfitters has two stores in Dublin, one at Dundrum shopping centre and the other in Temple Bar.

On a group level Urban Outfitters grew sales by a third at its European arm to €63.6m in the year to the end of January. Profits before tax more than doubled on the previous year to €5.8m.

But the retailer, which stocks labels such as Luella and See by Chloe alongside its own menswear and womenswear collections, admitted that trading had been tougher in the second half of the financial year.

Headquartered at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Urban Outfitters is a publicly traded American company.