Dunelm profits and sales jump as it reveals Brexit stockpiling

Furniture and homewares retailer Dunelm has seen its profits and sales jump it its latest half-year results, as it also revealed it is stockpiling ahead of Brexit.

Dunelm’s profit before tax grew 16.7% to £70m while like-for-like revenue rose 6.9% to £506m for the six months to the end of December. The like-for-like revenue growth was attributed to increases in both stores (3.8%) and online (35.8%).

The business imports less than 1% of its goods from EU countries, however the company said it had identified “some risks arising from potential disruption at ‘deep-sea’ ports in the period following exit”.

It added actions “have been taken” within the business and throughout its supply chain to “mitigate” the risk, such as purchasing incremental stock of some best-selling lines and securing additional supply chain capacity.

Nick Wilkinson, CEO, said: “It’s been a good first six months with our strong performance reflecting the focus we have placed back on the core Dunelm business. The like-for-like revenue growth, both in stores and online, demonstrates the progress we are making in improving our multichannel proposition whilst maintaining the breadth and depth of our specialist customer offer in homewares. On top of this, good operational discipline and keeping things simple, is driving a better financial performance.

“We traded well through our key Winter Sale period and remain pleased with our performance to date. As previously highlighted, we are cautious about the outlook for the remainder of the financial year due to the continuing political uncertainty in the UK. We are confident in delivering market expectations for the full year assuming no material change in the macro-economic environment.”

He added: “Looking to the future, we will continue to grow the business as we become a truly multichannel homewares destination, making Dunelm the first choice for even more customers, and further strengthening our market leading position.”