ASOS

Online fashion retailer ASOS grew sales by an impressive 48% to £65.8m during the first quarter to June.

In a 'Q1' trading update, ASOS, which sells clothes, accessories and jewellery across the world, primarily targeting young, fashion-conscious twenty-something women, reported retail sales of £61.7m, a 54% increase on the same period last year, with international sales up 111% to £22.9m.

Finance director Nick Beighton told Growth Company Investor the turnover increase arose following a year in which the company had cut back production of stock in anticipation of a reduction in consumer demand, which in fact turned out to be higher than anticipated. 'Last year, we were cautious with our stocking', he explained. 'This lead to us not being able to meet demand and hence we had a lot of disappointed customers that were unable to buy what they wanted'.

However, Beighton is looking for further growth this year, driven by an increase in sales in the US, Germany, Australia and Ireland, with trends this year likely to include burgeoning sales of full-length ‘maxi dresses’, as well as festival wear, shorter dresses and swimwear, with ASOS launching a number of country-specific websites this year.

Growth Company Investor first backed ASOS shares at 7p back in 2004 and since then, they have soared to present levels. Analysts at Collins Stewart are forecasting a 37% sales surge to £302m for the current year to March, giving earnings of 24.6p and placing the shares on a lofty-looking prospective p/e multiple of almost 40.

Now could be a good time for investors to follow the lead of co-founder and chief executive Nick Robertson, who recently sold 1.68m ASOS shares at 890p, netting £15m from the sale, by booking at least an element of profit. However, with plenty of growth left in the story and ASOS forecast to begin paying dividends in 2012, be sure to retain a very significant chunk.