Home furnishings retailer Dunelm has reported ‘strong’ half year sales growth although saw profits dip by 16%.
According to its interim results for the 26 weeks to 31 December 2022, total sales rose 5% to £835m from £795.6m against the same period. Gross margin reduced to 51.1% from 52.8%, while pre-tax profit fell 16.6% to £117.4m from £140.8m.
During the period, Dunelm opened three new stores and relocated one, while also reporting an increase in active customers by 5.7%. The retailer had implemented £17m of investment in digitalisation, capability and capacity to support “future growth opportunity”.
As for its current trading, Dunelm said it had received a “strong performance in the first half and a strong winter sale”, although while customers have been “resilient to date, the consumer outlook remains unpredictable”.
Nick Wilkinson, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are all learning to live in a new, complex and rapidly evolving economic reality. Recognising this, our focus has been on ensuring that we continue to offer outstanding value to our savvy customers through a proposition which is committed to quality, at the right price, across an expanding range of relevant products. We believe that this is why we have continued to grow our sales, customer numbers and market share.
“In this environment, agility, creativity and innovation are more important than ever and we have endeavoured to make every pound count, both for ourselves and for our customers, helping to mitigate the impact of inflation. While we do this, it is important that we also maintain our long-term thinking, invest for sustainable growth and continue to ensure we are in a position to seize the significant opportunities ahead of us.
“Much like during the pandemic, our customers, colleagues and the communities we operate in will remember how businesses behaved when times were tough, and we are confident that our approach of offering outstanding value and choice for all will enable us to – once again – emerge from this challenging period stronger than ever.”
