Mahmud Kamani and John Lyttle

Fast fashion empire Boohoo Group has had a big year. The owner of Boohoo, Nasty Gal and PrettyLittleThing bought the online business and intellectual property rights of premium womenswear brands Karen Millen and Coast out of administration for £18.2m in August.

It relaunched the two brands as online-only businesses in October and has said its initial focus will be on occasionwear specialist Coast, where it plans to lower entry prices and expand the range.

In March, it bought rival fast fashion rival brand MissPap, and its intellectual property assets, for an undisclosed sum.

The Manchester-based group has continued to fly high financially. In September, it raised forecast sales growth for the current financial year to between 33% and 38%, which it said reflected anticipated investments in its newly acquired businesses.

Revenue at the group was up 43% to £564.9m for the six months to 31 August.

Former Primark chief operating officer John Lyttle took the reins as CEO in March.

Co-founders Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane assumed the roles of group executive chairman and executive director respectively.