Strong sales growth reported by listed DFS

Doncaster-headquartered furniture retailer DFS has reported growth in its sales, while remaining cautious about the potential impact of the “volatile” political and economic climate.

The business has today delivered its period end trading update, in which it highlights good underlying Group gross sales growth of 7% and like-for-like gross sales growth across all brands with strong online growth of 17%.

It says underlying profit before tax is expected to be slightly above £50m, compared to £38.3m in the prior year.

A spokesman for the upholstered furniture business said it had registered a solid trading performance, adding: “We are pleased with the progress being made with our strategic transformation.

“In particular our omni-channel initiatives are performing well.

“The Sofology brand has continued to perform very well, achieving strong like-for-like gross sales growth with profitability in line with our expectations and the brand is well positioned for the future.

“We remain mindful of the risk that the volatile political and economic backdrop may further impact on already low consumer confidence levels. Our progress in the near term will inevitably be somewhat dependent on this backdrop.

“While weak trading environments make it harder to achieve significant levels of revenue growth, our omnichannel consumer offer, showroom sales densities, scale of operations and portfolio of well-recognised brands provide some resilience.

“We are executing our strategy of transforming our business to lead sofa retailing in the digital age.”

DFS has also announced the appointment of Mike Schmidt – currently Interim Chief Financial Officer – as Chief Financial Officer and as an Executive Director with immediate effect.

Schmidt joined DFS in March 2014. Before his appointment as Interim CFO, he served as DFS’s Chief Development Officer with responsibility for property, strategic development and investor relations activities.

He led the acquisition of Sofology in 2017 and more recently has served as Chair of Sofa Workshop and Dwell.

Prior to joining DFS, Schmidt spent 13 years working for investment banks including UBS and Citi, where he gained experience advising a range of consumer-facing companies.

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