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Footwear retailer, Dr Martens has revealed that its profit before tax dropped 30% to £70.9m from £101m for the year ended 31 March 2021 which was attributed to the £80.5m cost related to its London Stock Exchange IPO.
Profit was also impacted by the group’s repayment of £1.3m in furlough related monies from the total £1.9m that it received in government grants early on in the pandemic.
Despite footfall disruptions due to lockdown measures, total revenue increased 15% to £773m from £672.2m for the period.
There was a particular growth in e-commerce which increased 73% to £235.4m from £136.4m the previous year and represented 30% of the group’s overall sales.
It also attributed costs to the increase in corporation tax from 19% to 25%. This increase meant that the retailer paid a “higher than the average” amount of tax at £35.2m from £27.6m the previous year. This amount was mainly due to “non-deductibility” of certain expenses as well as a “geographical mix” of profits at different tax rates.
Kenny Wilson, CEO, said: “The pandemic presented challenges to our operations and ways of working, and our priority throughout was to keep our people and consumers safe. This hard work, together with the investments we continued to make in our brand, resulted in revenue up 15% and EBITDA up 22%.
“The investments and improvements we made in our supply chain in recent years, along with our multi-country sourcing model and close supplier relationships allowed us to quickly react to a rapidly changing environment, ensuring minimal disruption and maintaining good availability throughout.”
He added: “This underpins the financial guidance we laid out at the time of the IPO which is unchanged. Whilst the global trading environment remains uncertain, the strength of our iconic global brand means we look to the future with confidence.”
