Furniture and accessories retailer The Cotswold Company has reported a growth in sales as turnover climbed towards £100m.

According to its latest filed accounts for the year ended 27 February 2022, total sales rose 24% to £92.7m from £74.6m in 2021.

Gross profit increased from £40.8m to £46.6m, while pre-tax profit resulted at £769,000, down from £6.2m recorded the previous year.

Stated within its report, the company said that online shopping has remained strong following the pandemic, which is set to continue due to a “paradigm shift” of customers buying in this market sector.

During the year, global freight events caused some challenges through delays of products at ports, as well as experiencing increased costs of international freight. The business took actions to mitigate this by increasing prices accordingly as well as benefiting from the improved exchange rate from pounds to US dollars.

Furthermore, the company invested in the brand with the opening of two new stores and two outlets in “strategically, well suited locations”, bringing its portfolio to 11 at the year end.

Since the year end, the company has opened a new warehouse facility in Lichfield to further improve UK product availability and reduce customer lead times.

“This investment will also enable us to service the level of customer demand achieved as a result of the Covid pandemic, whilst continuing to delivering strong levels of customer satisfaction,” the business said.