28 March 2024, 11:20
By Furniture News Sept 17, 2018

Dunelm reports growth during Worldstores integration

Dunelm has announced its preliminary results for the 52 weeks to 30th June 2018, citing revenue growth of +9.9% and LFL sales growth of +4.2%, plus the successful integration of the Worldstores brand within Dunelm.com.

CEO Nick Wilkinson comments: "Following healthy sales growth over the past year, we are now taking steps to simplify the business under the core Dunelm brand, with one web platform and an integrated supply chain. This will allow us to respond more quickly to the changing consumer environment and drive future profitable growth.

"The Worldstores acquisition has given us the key ingredients for a step change in our digital capabilities. We are preparing to launch Dunelm.com on our new proprietary technology to give us much greater agility in improving our customer proposition. This is a new and exciting chapter for Dunelm as we fully embrace digital retailing."

During the period, Dubnelm has seen growth in the number of unique customer both online (+18%), and in-store (+5%), plus strong LFL growth online, with home delivery sales up +37.9%.

Total Dunelm.com sales (including Reserve and Collect) represented 13.5% of Dunelm's total sales in FY18 (up from 11.2%in FY17). The profitable Worldstores products have now been transferred to Dunelm.com.

During the period, Dunelm opened 10 new stores (including one relocation), adding +6.1% new space, and completed six refits.

Fiona Cincotta, a senior market analyst at www.cityindex.co.uk, comments: "Hot weather doesn't exactly inspire a desire to splash out on beds, sofas and rugs, especially when your wages aren't going up by much and there's beer to be drunk. It's no wonder, then, that Dunelm has struggled recently – so it's somewhat of a relief to see that it hasn't warned on profits again after issuing disappointing updates in May and July. Profits and margins are line with management's revised guidance, online sales are doing well and the dividend has inched higher."

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