Home furnishings and homewares retailer Dunelm has reported a growth in fourth quarter and full year sales.
According to its latest trading update for the 13-week period ended 28 June 2025 and for the full year, Q4 sales were up 4% to £415m, while full year sales rose 3.8% to £1.7bn.
Dunelm said that digital sales represented 42% of total revenues in Q4, while 40% in the full year. Full-year gross margin is expected to be up 60bps year-on-year, reflecting its “strong commercial and operational grip”.
Furthermore, full year pre-tax profit is expected to be in line with previous consensus average of analysts’ expectations at around £210m, with a range of £207m to £215m.
During Q4, Dunelm said that furniture has continued to perform particularly strongly. Its outdoor furniture and decorative outdoor accessories sold very well, especially in the warmer periods at the start and end of the quarter, when there was less demand for some of its warmer weather textiles products.
During the period, Dunelm invested in four new stores: one small superstore in Trowbridge and large superstores in Manchester and Southend; as well as relocating its Peterborough store to a larger, better located site.
This now brings the total number of new superstores opened in FY25 to six, not including its first inner London store at Westfield, and demonstrates the increasing variety of formats and sizes the retailer now has within its store estate.
Dunelm also acquired the Designers Guild brand and design archive. “We are excited about the opportunities this provides to participate in the growth of an iconic brand and support its continued development,” the retailer said.
“Our strong digital performance in the final quarter reflects the aggregate impact of improvements made throughout the year to our customers’ digital experience. The introduction of AI-powered search, recommendations and browse is driving increasingly personalised experiences, alongside a more convenient shopping experience through the expansion and optimisation of our Click & Collect proposition.”
Dunelm added that it will continue to in invest in the business and make progress against its strategy, remaining confident in its plans and ability to deliver further market share gains.
Nick Wilkinson, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We’ve had a good final quarter with continued growth and further strategic progress. Customers responded well to offers across our categories in our Summer Sale, and we saw strong demand for our Summer Living ranges, particularly as customers focused on their outdoor spaces during the warmer weather.
“We opened four new superstores in the final quarter alone, and our acquisition of the Designers Guild brand and archive presents an exciting opportunity to introduce new, iconic designs to our customers. These strategic developments conclude a year marked by a number of ‘firsts’, including international expansion into Ireland; deploying AI to improve our website experience; and opening our first inner London store at Westfield White City.
“Amidst muted consumer confidence, we are not standing still waiting for a recovery. We are instead focused on delivering relevance to our customers, to help build greater trust in the quality, value and breadth of our offer, harnessing our unique strengths as a multi-category specialist. As we progress our ambitions to gain further market share, we remain confident in our ability to unlock our full potential as the Home of Homes.”
