Online retail giant The Very Group had bad news and good on Tuesday. The company may have reported a loss for the latest half year, but it also announced a £125 million investment package, £85 million of it from Carlyle and the rest from IMI.

The company, which is owned by the billionaire Barclay family, said the money will “support its growth strategy” with each of the two investors taking a seat on its board.

Meanwhile, the results for the half year to the end of December saw revenue rising to £1.226 billion from £1.219 billion, and EBITDA up 10.1% to £130.7 million from £118.7m a year ago. But its pre-tax loss was £2 million after a profit on that basis of £2.1 million previously. The loss was due to higher interest costs.

UK Very revenue rose 2.7% to £1.05 billion. But while the very.co.uk operation led the charge and accounted for 86% of group revenue, Littlewoods sales dropped to £128.9 million from £147.3 million and Very Ireland was down to £39.6 million from £42 million.

The company also said group fashion and sports retail sales fell 5.9% year on year, and 5% at Very UK specifically, although this was a slowdown in the rate of decline.

The issue remained a very promotional environment for fashion yet premium fashion specifically did well with impressive growth of 18.4%.

Very’s non-executive chair Dirk Van den Berghe has also stepped down at the end of his contract term after two years in the role. A successor is being sought with Aidan Barclay of the controlling family taking on the role for now.

He said of the investment from Carlyle and IMI that the firm has “the support of two long-term, experienced institutional sponsors that understand our business extremely well.

“Their commitment underlines the confidence they have in the group, and their contribution to the board will be invaluable as we look to the future.”

And Taj Sidhu, head of European and Asian private credit at Carlyle, added: “We believe the group has a compelling and resilient business model and is well positioned for further growth in the coming years and we look forward to working closely with them.”