Boohoo raises £50m for new warehouse as sales double

Boohoo has raised £50m ($65m) from investors to fund a new warehouse as the online fashion retailer continues its breakneck growth.

The Manchester-based firm said the cash will help fund a 600,000 square feet automated site that will hold over £2bn of stock and is expected to be completed in 2020.

The youth fashion retailer, founded five years ago, is currently extending its main 996,000 square feet warehouse in Burnley by a further 900,000 square feet. This will hold £1bn of stock and is expected to be completed early next year.

The move comes as the group, which had been growing heavily in the UK and abroad, boasted soaring revenues and profit.

Sales across the group as a whole jumped 106% to £120.1m in the three months to May 31, compared to £58.2m in the same period the year before.

Boohoo sales increased 48% to £86.4m while sales in its PrettyLittleThing business leapt by 305% to £30.7m.

The group secured a 66% stake in UK online fashion rival PrettyLittleThing in December, set up by the children of Boohoo's co-founder Mahmud Kamani.

Los Angeles-based rival Nasty Gal, which Boohoo acquired for £16m earlier this year, made £2.9m in the period.

"Our performance in the first quarter has been very encouraging across all brands and geographic regions," said joint chief executives Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane in a statement.

"While it is early in the financial year, boohoo continues to perform well and PrettyLittleThing delivered exceptionally strong revenue growth in the first quarter as it continues to expand its young female customer base.

"Nasty Gal has made a promising start since we acquired the brand, with revenues growing strongly month-on-month, as we increased the product range."

The group now expects annual revenue growth to be around 60% ahead of last year, beating previous guidance of 50% growth.