Contract furnishings solutions supplier David Phillips has reported a decline in sales but improves margin.

According to its latest filed accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023, total sales fell 27.3% to £23.6m from £32.5m in 2022.

Pre-tax losses resulted at £3m, narrowing from a loss of £3.5m recorded in the previous year.

Stated within its report, the company said it “reset pricing” and “focussed on gross profit” in light of the double-digit inflationary challenges during the past year.

“This focus led the company to improve gross profit margin by 7.7% and to proactively decline turnover for the project business. The consequence was a substantial reduction in the net loss.

“The group also focused on stock turnover, which led to a £1.3m (44%) reduction in stock. This enabled a step change improvement in operational efficiencies with right first time deliveries increasing to 95%.”