Continued growth for Marks Electrical with strong half year results

Marks Electric Group, an online electrical retailer headquartered in Leicester, has issued a report for the six months ending on September 30, 2023.

In the first half of the company’s financial year, revenue surged by 24.8% to reach £53.9m, up from £43.1m in HY22 as the firm processed over 7,000 installation orders in the first half, a substantial 180% increase from the previous year, and delivered more than 11,000 freestanding connection services, marking a 120% rise from the prior year.

Marks’ product categories also had an impressive performance, notably in televisions, where sales grew by 71%, and in washer-dryers (up 74%) and American fridge-freezers (up 36%).

Despite deciding to introduce its in-house installation service and dealing with inflationary pressures affecting distribution costs, Marks’ H1 margins were impacted.

However, the company has anticipated these pressures to ease during H2 as it leverages improved operational efficiencies in the peak trading season.

It also invested £1.2m in their vehicle fleet and distribution centre.

Mark Smithson, chief executive officer at Marks Electric said: “We’ve built on the good momentum delivered at the start FY24, with revenue growth of 24.8% against a Major Domestic Appliances & Consumer Electronics market that is broadly flat in the first half of our financial year.

“Our strategic decision to add in-house installation services to our offering has strengthened the Group’s premium service proposition, enabling us to develop a market-leading installation offering, growing market share and driving revenue growth. The launch of this service, alongside the well-documented industry-wide pressures regarding wage inflation, impacted our H1 margin, with the pressure on distribution and installation costs being higher than expected. At the same time, year on year, we remained disciplined on marketing costs, maintained our cost control on overheads and are continuing to gain market share profitably.

“We remain focused on our full-year targets and expect margin pressure to ease in H2 as we benefit from improved operating leverage during the peak trading period. We’ve exited September with order growth of over 20%, made a strong start to October, and are laser-focused on maintaining our performance management discipline on revenue, profit and cash in order to grow sustainably and achieve our full-year targets.”