Norfolk’s largest independent furniture and furnishings retailer, Aldiss, reported record sales at both intake and delivered sales levels for the second year running when releasing results for the year ended 28th September 2024.
After the prior year’s achievement of sales surpassing the £25m (VAT inclusive order intake) milestone for the first time, a further record was achieved with sales on the same measure reaching £26.303m.
With less order book carry-over into the 23/24 year, delivered sales had more measured growth, at £21.550m – however this still represented a record performance.
The closing order book of £2.96m remains healthy and represents "a robust and controllable pipeline", says the retailer.
The gross margin percentage was maintained at 43%. PBT, at £687,798, was virtually identical to that achieved in the prior year.
The business continued to reinvest, with solar panels being added to the existing DC, alongside the ongoing scheme of building works designed to improve handling, storage and delivery facilities at this site.
This strong performance helped lift the balance sheet value to over £4m.
MD Darryl Simpson (pictured) says: “It is pleasing to be able to report on another set of record results. We operate in a challenging environment, which along with an increase in costs impacting our day-to-day operations, means our approach of generating strong sales alongside mitigating costs by an ongoing programme of investment is more relevant than ever.”
In addition to these advances in trading, WJ Aldiss paid down its outstanding CBILS loan, a legacy of Covid's disruption.
