Home furnishings retailer Dunelm has revealed its sustainability ambition to be more ‘environmentally and socially responsible’ into its customer proposition.

Named ‘good and circular’, this movement is intended to offer customers the opportunity to make ‘informed choices’, with the retailer increasing the number of products which meet its ‘more responsibly sourced’ standards.

Nick Wilkinson, Chief Executive Officer at Dunelm, said: “Sustainability remains a key focus for the business and we have continued to make good progress during the year.

“In addition to The Edited Life, our lifestyle brand, which incorporates a variety of more sustainable materials and encourages reduced consumption, we have also recently launched ‘Conscious Choice’.

“To be included in this selection of sustainably-focused own-brand lines, each product must be made from at least 50% more sustainable materials (by weight) compared to conventional alternatives, and will typically also offer an extended guarantee of between five and 25 years, with the products having been designed with durability in mind.

“In addition to product development, we also reduced the volume of plastic packaging on our own-brand products, and, in December 2021, expanded an in-store textiles take-back scheme nationwide. We now have customer take-back options for more than half of our own-brand product range, and have seen significant customer uptake.”

The take-back scheme for textiles is live in more than 90% of stores and now covers more than 50% of own-brand products.

Andy Harrison, Dunelm Chairman, added: “We have a number of partnerships in place to support our Net Zero Pathway, having joined the Aldersgate Group during the year and continued our collaborations with Textiles 2030 and the British Retail Consortium.”

Dunelm has also reported record results for the 53 weeks to 2 July 2022, with total sales growing 16.2% to £1.5bn from £1.3bn in 2021. Pre-tax profit increased 32.4% to £209m from £157.8m year-on-year.