Housing Units plans to reinvest profits in new ventures

HOMEWARE retailer Housing Units has said that it is planning to expand its core business and launch a series of new ventures after reporting a positive set of results for 2010.

Recently-filed accounts show that the family-owned firm increased pre-tax profits by 87% to £263,000 in the year to March 28.

Turnover also increased slightly to £18.1m (2009: £18m) and would have been higher still were it not for the cold snap in January, the firm argued.

A directors’ report accompanying the accounts said that it had managed to recover some of its momentum, however, with its customer order book at the end of March almost 20% ahead of the previous year.

A spokesman for the company said that since the year end there had been “some very positive signs” and that the business had continued to grow.

“The market is still challenging and the slow housing market has the biggest impact on our sector.”

Housing Units was started in 1947 and was bought by current owner Harry Fox in the 1980s. It operates a 200,000 sq ft showroom at Hollinwood in Oldham as well as a distribution depot which handles store, mail and internet orders.

“We have further investments planned, both in terms of expansions and entirely new ventures.”