Asos sales soar despite economy

So far fashion etailer Asos remains immune to the economic downturn. Sales for the six months to 30th September were £65.7 million, up 107 percent from the first half of last year. Pretax profit for the same period grew 71 percent, to £4.1 million. And the growth shows no signs of slowing down: For the seven weeks to 16th November, year-on-year sales were up 104 percent. The company also announced that it would launch AsosKids within the next six months and, to boost its international business, has appointed Jon Kamaluddin international director. He will continue in his current role as finance director, however, until a replacement is found.

Healthy Direct founder buys Flowercard

Flowercard, a direct seller of fresh flowers in personalised greetings cards, has been acquired by Graham Winn, founder and former managing director of vitamins cataloguer Healthy Direct, and former Healthy Direct operations director Ben Lowes. “Healthy Direct was sold earlier this year to Healthspan, and when I was coming to the end of the integration project of the two businesses, the opportunity to buy Flowercard came across my desk,” Winn said. “It has grown to over 100,000 satisfied customers organically with limited recruitment activity, which provides us with a solid business base to build upon with all our knowledge and expertise.”

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Marks & Spencer launches overseas delivery

Department store Marks & Spencer has introduced overseas delivery to Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Spain and the US. Only online orders—not phone orders—are eligible, and only apparel, accessories, jewellery and selected beauty and home products can be shipped. M&S sees the move as a way of reaching its goal of £500 million in web sales by 2011; its online sales were £220 million for the fiscal year ended 29th March.

US-based Mouser launches UK, German catalogues

Mouser Electronics, a US-based cataloguer of electronic components, has debuted its first overseas catalogues, for the UK and German markets. Mouser has launched a UK website as well and plans to launch a German site imminently. It also expects to introduce additional local web domains during the coming year. It will continue to fulfil all orders from its Texas distribution centre.

Aspace debuts two spin-offs

Children’s furniture merchant Aspace has introduced two catalogue spin-offs. Aspace Baby, which focuses on nursery furniture, mailed last month to 50,000 rented names, and Aspace Christmas Gifts was mailed with 400,000 Aspace catalogues in October and November. For the Christmas Gifts product range, Aspace teamed up with home and gifts cataloguer Cox & Cox; in exchange for providing Aspace its merchandising expertise, Cox & Cox receives a front-cover mention on the catalogue.  

Compton & Woodhouse tests fashion title

Multititle gifts, jewellery and collectibles mailer Compton & Woodhouse test-mailed Beishon, a 32-page women’s apparel and accessories catalogue. The title had been in development for 18 months. Compton & Woodhouse chief executive Mark Dugdale said that a “very small” number of catalogues were mailed and the company is proceeding “slowly” in light of the weak economy.

Parcelnet to ease out of fulfilment business

Otto Group-owned Parcelnet is planning to exit its fulfilment business to focus on its home delivery services. It will continue to provide third-party fulfilment for the businesses it has contracts with, but it will not renew those contracts or seek new fulfilment clients. In the meantime, Parcelnet will make several investments in its courier business, including the opening of a new hub in Nuneaton in mid-2009.   

New look for CataloguesCatalogues

You may have noticed that this edition of CataloguesCatalogues looks a little different. That’s because we’ve given the enewsletter a fresh new look and made it easier for you to access all the information you need. We hope you like it! We’d love to hear what you think of our redesign and look forward to receiving your comments and feedback. Please email sarah@ecmod.com with your thoughts