Country Road Group’s profit sinks as parent company warns discretionary spending will remain weak

The parent company of Country Road Group warns that discretionary spending will likely remain constrained in the near future as the beleaguered fashion house posts a loss for the 2025 financial year.

The group’s South Africa-based parent company, Woolworths Holdings, told the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Wednesday that CRG reported a pre-interest and tax loss of $18.1 million for the year ended June 29.

This compared with the $51.3m profit reported in 2024.

The profit slump came amid sinking sales for CRG, which is behind the eponymous fashion label, as well as Mimco, Politix, Trenery and Witchery.

Sales for the 2025 financial year fell by 5.4 per cent and by 6.8 per cent on a comparable-store basis. Total turnover also fell 5.4 per cent to just over $1b.

It has been a tumultuous period for CRG after the exit of several senior managers across its brands last year amid controversy about how sexual harassment and bullying complaints were handled by executives.

It has also shut a number of its Sydney stores in a bid to cut costs as sales plumet.

Earlier this year, Woolworths Holdings said CRG was undergoing a “significant restructure of its operating model” and resetting as a standalone business following the split from department store David Jones, which was sold to Anchorage Capital in 2022.

Woolworths Holdings on Wednesday said the transformation was undertaken in an accelerated timeframe and within a particularly unconducive macro backdrop, whereby sustained pressure from high interest rates and living costs continued to impact consumer footfall and spend. This resulted in the sales slump.

But Woolworths Holdings said CRG had seen some improvements in the fourth quarter, with trade performance declining by a lesser 0.3 per cent on the prior comparable period.

“Notwithstanding easing inflation and recent interest rate cuts, business and consumer confidence across both geographies remains subdued, with discretionary spend likely to remain constrained for the foreseeable future,” it said.

The Country Road and Trenery brands have continued to trade ahead of the rest of the CRG brands, the parent company said.