Asos counts the £30m cost of warehouse fire

Asos, which targets internet-savvy 16 to 34-year-old women looking to emulate the designer looks of celebrities such as Kate Moss, Sienna Miller and Alexa Chung, said it lost sales of between £25m and £30m after the blaze damaged 20 per cent of its stock at the five-storey building.

The firm said the stock had been compromised by either fire damage or the sprinkler systems.

Around 500 workers were evacuated from the five-storey building.

The company said it is fully insured for the loss of stock and the interruption to business.

It added that none of the technology, automation or structure of the building has been affected by the fire.

At the end of May, Asos held £159m of stock at cost, of which around 70 per cent is held at Barnsley.

​Earlier this year Asos announced plans to invest £30m in its state-of-the-art Barnsley warehouse as part of ambitious expansion plans to increase the floorspace by 25 per cent and mechanise the entire operation.

The 530,000 sq ft Barnsley site is to switch from manual picking to automated picking.

​​Adjusting for insurance proceeds, the company said it still expects profits for the year to August 31 to be in line with forecasts, although this comes after a difficult 2014 in which it has already issued two profit warnings.

Shares slumped yesterday as it said there was unlikely to be a rebound in profits in the current financial year.

It said the performance would be held back by significant investment in its international pricing strategy, as well as in infrastructure and technology.

Freddie George, retail analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, retained his forecast for lower profits of £46​m in the year to August but reduced his target for the year to August 2015 from £55​m to £48​m.

“There will inevitably be questions over the robustness of the company’s model, particularly its development strategy overseas,” he said.​

“More worryingly perhaps, the company’s recent ‘damage limitation’ strategy has also, we believe, impacted the company’s entrepreneurial ethos and held back its evolution.”

A​sos said UK trading remained strong over the final quarter of the year, with sales up 33​ per cent​ compared with a year earlier.

Total sales for the group, which has websites in the United States, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Russia and China, ​rose 27​ per cent​ over the year at £975.5m​.

​The group’s c​hief executive Nick Robertson said: “We remain focused on the long-term opportunity for A​sos​, with £2.5​bn of sales as our next staging post.

“Engagement with our customers remains positive with a 25​ per cent​ growth in active customers and increases in order frequency, conversion rate and average basket value,” said Mr Robertson​.

​Sales for the year as a whole increased by 27​ per cent​.

Analysts at Killik & Co said annual profits will be well below the current market forecast of £65m.