Hello, and thank you for joining the ASOS analyst and investor call. My name is Robin, and I'll be coordinating the call today. If you would like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star one on your telephone keypad or via the flag icon if you have joined us online. I will now hand you over to your host, Mat Dunn, COO and CFO of ASOS. Thank you.
Thanks, Robin, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to our P1 results call, where I'll be taking you through the results for the 4 months ending the thirty-first of December, 2021. I also have Katy Mecklenburgh, acting CFO with me today. I'll start by taking you through an overview of our performance and some of the nuances of the period before handing over to Katie, who will take you through the financial results in a bit more detail. Turning now to a quick overview of results. For clarity, all sales numbers quoted throughout the call are on a constant currency basis reflecting total sales growth. We've delivered 5% revenue growth in line with our guidance.
Given the backdrop over this period, we are pleased with this performance, which reflects the strength of our offer, excellent customer experience, and the dedication and hard work of all ASOSs. Going into a bit more detail on the backdrop, we faced the expected additional supply chain constraints, particularly over the peak trading period, which widened our ability to optimize our stock profile and capture the available demand. Furthermore, towards the latter part of the period, we saw increased uncertainty relating to the Omicron variant. Against this backdrop, we're really pleased with our growth in the U.K. of 13%, driven by strong peak trading and an increased demand for going out wear. This was supported by good customer metrics with continued growth in active customers and increases in frequency visits and orders year-on-year. We're also pleased that the U.S.
Has grown ahead of the company growth rate, but our performance there was particularly impacted by the supply chain constraints, with port congestion affecting our ability to get stock into our fulfillment center. As a result, we saw lower stock availability and high demand categories, and so we couldn't fully capitalize on the available demand. Similarly, our wholesale sell-through was impacted by these supply chain constraints, and so wholesale revenues contributed at slightly lower levels than P4 last year. European performance of 2% growth was also impacted by the supply chain constraints and the corresponding impact on stock profile. This was coupled with an increase in restrictions across several key countries, limiting events and going out occasions. We saw strong performance in Germany due to increased demand for going out wear there throughout the period, with performance accelerating further through November to December.
This is largely offset by weaker trading in France, where we cycled strong comparisons, and we saw customers in particular return to the high street. Trading in the rest of world remained tough and declined by 15%, reflecting the continued impact of extended delivery propositions as a result of the lack of flights. In terms of customers, we delivered an increase of 0.3 million active customers in P1. A result which we're pleased as we cycled a period of exceptional customer acquisitions in P1 FY 2021. This demonstrates the strength of our core customer base and the stickiness of the customers we added last year. Even more pleasing is that the new premium subscriptions are up 28.5%, supported by the first premium day on the 13th of October.
We've made good progress against our recently outlined strategic priorities with a successful Partner Fulfils pilot and the soft launch of an edit of ASOS brands in Nordstrom stores and online. I'll spend some time just updating you on the key call-outs here. Starting with Topshop. The Topshop brand continued to perform strongly with growth of nearly 170% year-on-year on the asos.com platform, and over 200% growth on the year across both wholesale and asos.com. The U.K., Germany, and the U.S. continued to perform well in each of these growth rates, with the strength of the brand in these markets reinforced. While it's still early on, and this is obviously only a trading update, I wanted to update you on the progress of our ASOS brand physical launch in Nordstrom stores.
In November, we successfully debuted our first ASOS drop with Nordstrom. This first drop consisted of both womenswear and menswear pieces and was focused on both casual holiday dressing and iconic party styles, with an edit of ASOS DESIGN, ASOS EDITION, and ASOS LUXE ranges available in two physical Nordstrom stores and on nordstrom.com. This launch was supported by local, social, and in-store marketing. Initial feedback and sell-through was positive for both online and in store, with many items selling out within the first two weeks online. We'll follow this initial launch with a full launch in the first half of 2022, and we'll provide a further update on this at our half year results.
In terms of our increased channel broad reach marketing efforts, it is still early days and too soon to update you on hard results yet. We've completed the first set of tests as planned, and we've seen encouraging early results in test geographies. Importantly, we've gained the learning we sought both in terms of landing an effective creative message as well as the right medium mix. We've adjusted our subsequent testing plan based on these learnings, and we'll continue our test and learn approach and update you further as appropriate. We rolled out the pilot of the Partner Fulfils program in P1 in the U.K. in partnership with adidas and Reebok in early November.
It successfully supplemented our existing stock profile by offering additional availability on our existing range where we had stocked out. By the end of December, Partner Fulfils accounted for around 5% of our U.K. sales of adidas and Reebok. We are particularly pleased with this, as these are all entirely incremental sales before we've even put any marketing support behind it. Our focus for the remainder of the year is on expanding to add additional products over and above what we currently sell on asos.com, as well as rolling out our capability to Europe, and we'll update you with more specifics at our half-year results. We also remain focused on efforts to improve the flexibility and speed of our retail model and are accelerating the pace of delivery of our international growth strategy.
The next phase of this work will include further alignment of the organization against key priorities, including the establishment of more dedicated teams in support of ASOS and partner brands, the further rollout of geographical teams, and the establishment of key operating units to drive our Bath & Body and Sportswear growth plans. I'm sure you've also seen this morning that we've announced our intention to apply for admission to trade on the London Stock Exchange Main Market. We've demonstrated a strong track record and very broad shareholder base. However, we feel that now is the appropriate time to apply for admission to the Main Market in recognition of our progress as a company and to extend the opportunity to own our shares to a broader group of global institutional shareholders.
Separately, we're also delighted to announce the appointment of Patrick Kennedy, chairman of Bank of Ireland Group plc and former chief executive of Paddy Power, as senior independent non-executive director and audit committee chair with immediate effect. I'd now like to turn it over to Katy, who will update you on our growth margin performance and outlook before we turn to Q&A.
Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. As Matt mentioned, the revenue grew by 5% on a constant currency basis. The difference between reported and constant currency revenue is driven by the strengthening of the pound relative to the euro, US dollar, and renminbi and yen. Gross margin stepped up by 400 basis points in the period, mainly driven by incremental inbound freight costs and higher clearance, along with the annualization of Brexit duty charges, which will have fully annualized by the end of H1. Taking each of these in turn. The higher freight costs we have incurred in Q1 reflect the continuation of COVID-related supply chain disruption, which was factored into our FY 2022 guidance.
The cost of ocean freight has increased versus last year, and while the ocean freight contracts we have in place have mitigated some of this impact, these were entered into in H2 FY 2021, when the market rates had already increased above rates seen in P1 last year. Another driver of the higher freight costs has been the higher cost of air freight, as we took action to accelerate our product intake ahead of the important peak trading months. Now turning to clearance. You'll recall that in P4 we experienced delays in the supply chain, along with volatile demand influenced by poor weather in key markets, which left us with pockets of spring/summer stock left over at the end of the season. To manage this, we have run additional discount events and clearance steps to clear product not sold during the spring/summer season.
Turning to the shape of our gross margin profile for the remainder of the year. In terms of the rest of H1, there was a phasing impact last year to gross margin levels between P1 and P2. Although the trends remain similar, we don't expect H1 to have the same impact as P1. As we move into the second half, we expect the year-on-year impact of freight costs to alleviate in the second half of the year as we annualize our freight, our ocean freight contracted rates and as our freight mix normalizes. We expect the increased rates of markdown we have seen in Q1 to be temporary as our stock profile continues to improve, and we are cycling higher levels of markdown incurred in the second half of last year. Therefore, we would expect markdown to be lower year on year in H2.
We allow for mid-single-digit price increase to mitigate cost inflation going forward across both ASOS and partner brands. This will start to impact P2 onwards. As a reminder, we invested in price in H2 of last year in Europe and the US to realign our price points locally. As we react to prevailing inflation, we would expect pricing to have a more favorable impact in the second half of the year. We further expect intake margins to improve in H2, supported by the operational efficiencies we outlined at the CMD. On a technical point, you'll recall that Matt covered an overview of the work we'll be undertaking in support of accelerating our strategic priorities, which will require us to change the way we work in a number of instances. As a result of this, we're expecting to incur costs that are one-offs in nature.
In addition to this, we will incur non-recurring costs relating to our move from AIM to the Main Market. In total, across those buckets, we expect this cost to be in the range of GBP 10 million-GBP 30 million for the first half of the year, and we will update with further detail at the half year. In terms of our outlook, our guidance for the year remains unchanged. It's probably worth noting that given the mix of expected cost wins in H1 and the impact of improvements in gross margin in H2, we're expecting the profit to be more weighted to H2 than normal years. However, we do expect to make a profit in H1. As a reminder, we guided for FY 2022 sales growth expected to be in the range of 10%-15%, with H1 revenue growth in mid-single digits.
Our FY 2022 adjusted PBT expectations are in the range of GBP 110-140 million. CapEx investments of circa GBP 210 million, and we expect free cash flow generation to be broadly neutral. In summary, we delivered 5% revenue growth in line with our guidance. We made continued progress against our strategic priorities with successful pilots of Partner Fulfils, the soft launch of ASOS EDITION in the Nottingham store and online, and growth of more than 200% in the Topshop brands across our platform and wholesale year-on-year. Despite short term uncertainty, our guidance for the year remains unchanged, with revenue growth expected in the range of 10%-15% and adjusted PBT of GBP 110-140 million. We'll now hand over to Q&A.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind and would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. If you have joined us online, you can press the flag icon on your web browser to ask a question. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. Our first question comes from Charlie Muir-Sands from BNP Paribas. Charlie, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yeah, thank you very much. Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. I've got three brief ones, please. The first is whether could you please talk about how your propositions stood up over peak in the key warehouses and markets. I'm particularly interested in the U.K. I saw the odd bit of press suggesting that perhaps you weren't able to maintain next day delivery for a product coming out of Lichfield, and I don't know if that was a bit of a teething problem, for example. The second question is, you know, noting your comment about the rest of world still being dragged by delivery delays. I wonder if you could just update us on how long it is taking you to get product to some of those far-flung places like Australia.
Third one is just on the guidance. The sales growth, can you just clarify whether the guidance is in reported or constant currency? Because, sorry, my understanding was that the growth was in reported currency because of referencing the 5% being in line using a constant currency reference. Thanks.
Yeah, I can deal with all those quite quickly. Just on the last, I'd just like to clarify that, Charlie, we've always given, you know, guidance in constant currency, along with most companies, because currency is something that you can't control. All guidance is in constant currency as is normal and expected. In terms of the delivery days, I mean, it varies very much by territory. But if you talk about the major territories, you're probably talking between 3 days to 10 days, depending on exactly where it is and what kind of country. It will depend on when you order in the week, because what you find is planes go less often, therefore the proposition is more variable depending on when somebody orders.
Let me talk in general terms, then I can speak specifically about Lichfield. Overall, our proposition held up really well. In fact, our proposition year-on-year was improved in the U.K., Europe and very similar in the U.S. Over peak, we normally remove NDD and go with the fastest service. That's what we've done this year, but we also did it last year. In terms of Lichfield, as Lichfield is still in startup mode, we don't have NDD available through all carriers yet. There are certain products that are being sold exclusively through Lichfield, where currently NDD is not available.
That's as we anticipated and planned it as we ramp up, and effectively one of the ways we ramp up is we add new carriers over time.
Great. Thanks very much. Sorry. It must have been my misunderstanding on the guidance. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Charlie. Our next question comes from Miriam Adisa from Morgan Stanley. Miriam, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Great. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I have three questions from me. First, just on the gross margin, could you just give us a breakdown of that 400 basis points between the different elements that you mentioned? Are you still confident of achieving broadly flat gross margins for the year? Second, could you talk about the product mix you're seeing at the moment and also where returns now are relative to pre-pandemic levels, just given some of the commentary from one of your peers? Third, could you talk a bit about the learnings from the Partner Fulfils trials with adidas? And if you could just talk about the type of product or brands that you're now looking to onboard and work with as you expand to Europe. Thank you.
Yes. I'll get Grace and Katy to answer the gross margin question, and then I can pick up the others pretty quickly.
Sure. From the 400 basis points, just less than half is rate and GC. With the other half, mostly, the vast majority relates to the clearance mix that we talked about. Out of the clearance mix, very roughly half is clearance depth with the other increase in actual clearance mix, if that makes sense. As we discussed just now, the reason for the clearance is higher than normal levels of spring, summer stock due to the volatility of demand that we saw in H2 last year, but mostly in P4.
Do you wanna talk about the H2 expectations a bit again, Miryam?
Sure. As we guided for the year-end results, we said that gross margin will be broadly flat for the full year, and that's still our expectation.
Just touch on your other points briefly, Miriam. In terms of product mix, we have seen a shift in our mix back into I guess what we would characterize as going out wear and formal. Probably the best way to explain it is that the mix sits somewhere between pre-pandemic levels and pandemic levels. We're nowhere near seeing the demand go back to what we would characterize as a normal pre-pandemic level, and I think that reflects the level of restrictions and consumer behavior that we're seeing. But clearly, it's not at pandemic levels either, it's somewhere in between. In terms of returns rate, what we've experienced is that returns rates on a product-by-product basis are very much returning to the levels we would have seen pre-pandemic.
We haven't seen any evidence of them returning to levels higher than pre-pandemic, in fact, very much in line. Therefore, our actual returns rate is largely a function of mix. I guess that strong expectation is that normalization has taken place and will continue. Clearly, there's a bit of short-term uncertainty around at the moment because of kind of the way Omicron coincided with Christmas. In terms of the learning on Partner Fulfils, there were two reasons to run the pilot. One was to make sure that we could successfully execute, and it was a good experience for customers. I think we're really confident with the way that experience takes place for customers.
In that sense, it gives us the confidence to move to roll out, and that was one of the key elements of the pilot. In terms of where we're going next, you know, clearly having 5% of the incrementality on just depth I think indicates the potential around some of our bigger brands. We are working with a number of our bigger brands to try and onboard them. Clearly, they'll come at different paces and different rates depending on the complexity of any technical integration that needs to take place. We're also looking at how we roll that out to smaller brands as well.
Our two focus areas in the next few months are to move to augmenting our stock profile with products that we don't stock, and looking to expand the capability, as I said, from U.K. into Europe because you need different regulatory requirements, et cetera, for Europe versus the U.K. Those are the two big focus areas that we would hope to have in place in the first half of calendar 2022.
That's great. Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ben Hunt from Investec. Ben, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Oh, morning. Just a couple of questions. Firstly, just this ability to manage on the one hand raising prices for the season coming in and on the other hand discounting spring/summer stock in the second half of last year. Really, how much of the recovery in the second half is gonna be from price increases? And how you are gonna be able to manage that, you know, with this, I don't know what I'd like to say, clearly, you know, handling your prices. Are you having no problem selling through on increased prices at the moment?
I mean, in terms of impacts on second half, the year-on-year annualization of clearance will be, we would anticipate being a bit bigger than the benefits from pricing given the, as we kind of move to a more normal environment from the, you know, we had a very polarized demand picture in the second half of last year, if you remember, with holidays not happening and festivals, et cetera. I guess in terms of how to think about that, clearance is probably the bigger chunk of it. In terms of pricing, we are, you know, it's relatively early days, so let me caveat what I'm about to say with that. But obviously we're operating in a prevailing inflationary environment, and therefore, and the way, you know, we're taking a very segmented approach to pricing.
It's not like we put up the price across our whole portfolio by X. We are looking at it on a category by category basis to try and understand what the right level of pricing is. Overall, I think we feel relatively comfortable that the pricing that we've taken will be absorbed by the market and by consumers. I think consumers are conditioned to expect it. You know, we'll obviously have to see how that evolves, but I feel relatively positive about that at this early stage.
Okay, great. Second question, the active customer growth has been muted for a while now. Just to what extent have you held back marketing through getting customers on board?
I think the customer growth reflects largely the annualization of really strong new customer growth last year, which would be a function of the fact that the vast majority of physical retail was closed. In that sense, I think that's the biggest contributor to the customer statistics as we kind of annualize that period. In terms of marketing, we have invested more year on year, but not disproportionately so.
In terms of the market, you know, marketing when you haven't got the best availability of stock profile. You know, our expectation is that we will invest more in the second half of the year in support of our growth plans as our stock profile normalizes, but also as we take the learnings from our test and learn approach to marketing. I think probably the easiest way to think about it is that the marketing year-on-year had a fairly immaterial impact in terms of driving different behaviors.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Michael Benedict from Berenberg. Michael, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Morning, all. Thanks very much for taking my question. A couple from me, please. Firstly, when you set forth your guidance, you did assume a soft H1 followed by a re-acceleration in H2. I wondered if there's been any change to the supply or demand picture, in that context. The second point, just on how the start of spring/summer is looking from a product availability perspective, please.
Okay. I mean in terms of the supply, demand picture, actually, I mean, I think I was trying to summarize overall, I think the supply and demand picture is panning out largely as we would expected that it would. There's a bit of short-term uncertainty as we flagged around Omicron and what that does to the next few weeks. I think as we look forward, I think we feel that from a demand perspective, you know, we would expect year-on-year the demand environment to be better. You know, it's early, it's only January as you know, but it does feel like things like holidays, festivals, et cetera, are likely to be a reality of consumers' lives. I actually feel relatively optimistic about the demand picture.
I think the early signals are positive. For example, we just had a really good week on swimwear last week, which I think tells you consumers are starting to think about going on holiday and starting to. So I think, well, certainly, I think the demand signals are relatively positive from a, from an activity perspective. From a supply perspective, and it probably links to the second part of your question around the start to kind of transition into spring/summer, we are, you know, we are receiving product very much in line with what we would've anticipated as we move through kind of the peak period and into a period where there's probably less capacity constraints overall. Our full price sell-through over the last couple of weeks has been really strong.
Again, I would say encouraging early signs, but it is January and therefore, you know, while I'm optimistic, you know, there's still a long way to run before, you know, before we can be more definitive. You know, good so far, I would say.
Brilliant. Thanks very much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Simon Bowler from Numis. Simon, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hi. Two from me, if okay. First one, just to come back to your kind of comment on mix earlier. Is your kind of expectation that as we move hopefully back into a more normal environment that the mix will go back to pre-pandemic levels? Or do you think kind of you've sustainably got a larger business outside of the going out ranges? And are there any periods of kind of more normal from some of your regions, more normal shopping behavior where you've seen that happen or otherwise? And then secondly, can you kind of talk a little bit around kind of flexibility in your buy, given the understandable reasons with the volatility we've had, kind of clearance has been a bit higher than expected for that kind of six, nine months.
What flexibility have you got to give comfort that that shouldn't be the case over the summer?
Yeah. Let me try and deal quickly with those. In terms of mix, absolutely we think that we have built a bigger casual wear business than we had pre-pandemic. In that sense, I'm not sure we expect mix to return to pre-pandemic levels, but we do expect going out demand as an absolute to return to pre-pandemic levels. I guess we think there's quite a significant way to run on going out, so we would expect that to increase in the mix. But as you rightly point out, not necessarily in mix terms to the levels it was pre-pandemic because we've definitely got a bigger casual wear business. I guess the early signs, and again, it's not a perfect proxy 'cause there are still lots of moving parts around restrictions, et cetera.
I look at somewhere like Germany over the last few weeks. We've seen a really strong pickup in going out, particularly in dresses demand, which is always an area we were really strong in Germany. We continue to see decent trajectory on casual. I think that gives us some confidence that what we believe will materialize in the, you know, in the sort of slightly longer term is validated by what we're seeing right now. In terms of buying flexibility, I guess it's a sort of there is some, you know. We're driving as much flexibility as possible, but we're balancing that against the fact that obviously supply lead times remain longer than in normal times.
We would enter the season with a fair amount of flexibility, particularly more so in spring/summer than in autumn/winter because of the nature of the product profile. There's less, you know, something like coats and jackets, for example, have a lot longer lead time. There's inherently more flexibility. We're looking to move as much product as we can to short lead to assist that flexibility. There are slightly longer lead times. If you kind of roll all that up, Simon, I feel we've got a reasonably good level of flexibility, particularly towards the back end of the summer season.
I think the biggest thing that gives me confidence about our stock profile is, if you think about February, March last year, which is when we were crystallizing our spring, summer buy, we were still in a world where actually we were all in full lockdown. Therefore, the demand uncertainty heading into last spring, summer was significantly higher than I think the demand uncertainty now, where it feels like there is a, you know, a much clearer picture.
I think, you know, I have a lot of confidence that the mix of our stock buy this year is somewhat more predictable than the mix of our stock buy last year, where we were trying to effectively speculate between, you know, when would we come out of lockdown, to what extent would we see holidays, festivals, all of those kinds of things. I think in that sense, it's, you know, we're not out of the pandemic and I feel like I should touch wood about the fact we could have a new variant in at any point, but it feels to me like that demand picture, consumers have learned much more to live with the virus. You can see that in the going out trends. I think there's a much more stable picture.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Georgina from Johanan from JP Morgan. Georgina, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hi, good morning, everyone. Two questions, please. Just following up on things you touched on already, if I may. First of all, just on returns rate, just to clarify, because obviously you've been very clear that they are kind of, you know, similar to pre-crisis levels on a like-for-like basis. You said in the statement that returns rates have normalized, yet the mix is still quite different. I'm just trying to understand how returns rates don't therefore remain lower overall at a group level. That's my first question, please. My second one, just on the gross margin, perhaps just to try and put some numbers around H2, given all of the moving parts.
I mean, my understanding is from the price increases that you've called out, that in theory should be at least 100 basis points support year on year in H2. Am I right therefore in understanding that you're expecting the clearance reversal to be in excess of 100 basis points as well year on year in H2? Thanks so much.
Okay, let me, I'll deal with those quickly. On, I mean, on returns, there isn't just casual wear going out because within that you've got dresses that have a higher returns rate than trousers, et cetera, et cetera. I won't comment on specifics. The easiest way to think about it is that our returns rate is around the level it was pre-pandemic. There might be, and again, it'll depend on half year, there might be 50 basis points or 100 basis points of sustainability or something like that, but it just depends on the mix. It's not a material contributor to the situation in the way that we saw over the pandemic period. It's not a big driver of financial performance in the way that it was through the pandemic period.
I won't comment on the specifics of your math, because it will depend on exactly how the price increases move, et cetera. We would expect clearance to be, as I said, bigger than price increases. Directionally, you're probably slightly over on what you think the impact on prices is gonna be and clearance, but clearance would be a factor bigger. I realize that's not a brilliantly open answer, but I think, like, you know, I don't think it's right to try and give you the specifics on a forecast into the future. In terms of the mix, definitely you see more as clearance than pricing.
No, that's helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Anne Kahuko from Société Générale. Anne, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Thank you. Yes, just one question from me, please, on marketing costs. Because we're hearing quite a lot about how marketing is producing lower returns on investment. Just wondering if there's a danger of marketing stepping up perhaps to more than you expected. I know you flagged sort of 6% of sales or slightly above. Whether you're seeing any variations by region in terms of returns on investment there.
I guess the really short answer, Anne, is that the returns on marketing that we're seeing are largely as we expect them to be. There are regional differences, there always have been. But I'm not, you know, I'm not concerned that we're in a situation. You know, it is only a P1 trading update, but I'm not in a situation where I think that we're expecting marketing to be materially different than we guided to at the recent Capital Markets Day straight for you.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Simon Irwin from Credit Suisse. Simon, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Morning, everyone. Apologies if you've already gone over this, but I had to drop out of the call. Can you just talk a little bit more detail about the rest of world, which markets are kind of being most impacted, how the proposition currently is, kind of versus normal or versus six months ago, and how quickly you would expect kind of freight or availability to improve in the coming months? Also just kind of related to that, how reliant are you on transatlantic air freight these days, or is the U.S. business now increasingly self-reliant?
Yeah, let me do the second one's great. We're not, we don't extensively use USA freight. The business is not reliant on that. We have used it where a particular stock package, et cetera. It's not dependent on that, necessarily. I'm not concerned about USA freight specifically. In terms of rest of world, collectively we've got three, you know, there are lots of markets but there are three big chunky ones, Australia, Russia, and MENA. In terms of proposition, Australia remains the most impacted from a proposition perspective, and it's also where we probably think most challenging from. I think that because there are established, you know, at the relativities of established local players versus our proposition, it's probably where we're most disadvantaged.
In terms of somewhere in between, and then Russia is the least impacted, and Russia is where we've actually seen positive growth within the period as well. So our sales within rest of world do quite well. In terms of expectations on how quickly they go back to normal, that's a much harder thing for me to predict, Simon. My sense is that, and again, you guys will have seen the same statistics we do, but air passenger traffic, which is where most of our parcels would go as opposed to any inbound freight, seems slowly picking up. Short-haul feels like it's picking up more quickly than somewhere like an Australian routing, but Australia is now open to clear a particular way before.
I think I expect a slow, steady improvement, but I suspect that within the window of this financial year, it's unlikely to be completely back to normal. I honestly don't know.
Great. Thank you very much, Mat.
No problem.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Liv Townsend, from UBS. Liv, please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Thanks for taking my questions. I just have two. The first one is just on U.K., where I think you know growth clearly was stronger than the other regions. I'm just wondering if you can give any extra information around how that broke down into new customers or whether it's sort of taking more share of wallet from existing customers. My second question is just whether you could give us some kind of indication on fulfillment and warehousing cost sales change year-on-year, even if sort of just directional, given I know over Black Friday I had some orders that were split into two or three individual shipments, whereas before there would have been one. Just any indication that would be very helpful. Thanks.
Sure. Yeah. On the UK customer breakdown, it. The bigger chunk of it is the frequency of our existing customer base. Which is what we would have anticipated. There would have been a number of customers who, you know, ASOS is where they go for their Christmas party outfit or whatever it might be. We've seen a pickup in frequency, and we've seen really pleasing stickiness from the customers we acquired during the pandemic. However, having said that, I think we remain positively surprised by the new customer generation that we see in the UK. I think we've, to be honest, we're really pleased with all of the customer metrics in the UK.
If anything, I think we've been a little bit taken positively by surprise in terms of the strength of some of those metrics in the UK. I think that reflects the strength of our brand and proposition in the market. In terms of warehousing costs, what you've experienced there, Liv, is that we are as we operationalize Lichfield, there is a relatively small percentage of our deliveries that were effectively a split order, where we take the one order and we split it into two. That was more extensive over peak than it would be in normal times. It's not a significant driver of warehouse. I mean, that would actually sit in delivery costs. It's as we anticipated it would be.
It's part of operationalizing two warehouses, and it's within the cost guidance that we've given. It's as we expected. More generally on warehousing costs, the two big drivers of warehousing costs are, first of all, returns normalization, because there's more handling in the warehouse as a result of that, and clearly that would impact delivery costs as well. Then as we pointed to at the full year last year, we are seeing pricing pressure on warehouse wages and warehouse inflation. So they're much bigger drivers than the split orders, which is a relatively small part of our mix. I guess the only other thing to say is, you know, we've talked a lot about ASOS Fulfil and our kind of approach to flexible fulfillment. That, again, is utilizing split orders.
Within both of those, we use a series of business rules to make sure that those activities are profitable to do and it's servicing demand we wouldn't have otherwise been able to meet. It shouldn't necessarily be unexpected if you receive split orders, but I'd say as a percentage of the mix, it's relatively small.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. That now concludes our Q&A session. I will now hand back to Mat for closing remarks.
I don't have any remarks other than just to say thank you everybody for listening, and we appreciate your interest, and hopefully everyone has a good day. Thanks very much.
Thank you everyone for joining. You may now disconnect your line.