Plus-sized fashion retailer City Chic Collective has seen unaudited sales grow 32.9 per cent to $258 million during FY21, and expects earnings to hit approximately $42 million – around 58 per cent up on FY20.

And following a successful year-to-date, City Chic is expanding its fashion group with the purchase of European plus-size online retailer and marketplace Navabi for $9.6 million.

Navabi was established in 2009 as an online marketplace aiming at the plus-sized market, and over time has developed its own exclusive brands which feature on its store. Despite being predominantly online the business saw its traffic fall due to the Covid-19 pandemic and has failed to regroup, with traffic remaining below pre-pandemic highs of roughly 10 million customers per year, landing at only 5.8 million customers in 2020.

“Navabi is an exciting strategic opportunity, giving us a great foothold in the €40 billion European plus-size market, which is the next key geography in driving towards our vision to lead a world of curves,” said City Chic chief executive officer Phil Ryan.

“Over the past decade we have followed Navabi as it has built a strong online marketplace for plus-size brands. The Navabi customer has the same emotional connection that has driven our success, and we are excited to introduce our brands to this European customer base.”

The acquisition will be funded through City Chic’s cash balance.