Building supplies firm sees revenue dip by 12 per cent

Building supplies firm says that revenues in the first half of the year fell by 12 per cent to £36.9m as a result of the ongoing economic uncertainty.

The Plymouth company is the UK’s largest online-only retailer of building materials and has set out to disrupt the market.

The firm said in May it expected the economic situation to remain challenging and the timing of recovery in consumer confidence uncertain.

The company introduced cost reductions, improved margins, address carriage costs and adapted to current slower sales growth.

And despite ongoing market volatility, the board expects EBITDA to be in line with market expectations for the year of £2.5m despite lower sales at £80m.

Sales in the first half of £36.9m represent a one year like-for-like decline of 12 per cent, which is 15 per cent up on pre-Covid like-for-like and representing an increase for the group of 57 per cent on a four-year view.

Across the  business CMO has seen underlying robustness in our trade customers with improved KPI’s in revenue per session growing 15 per cent year to date and the number of repeat customers up 21 per cent.

Chief executive Dean Murray said: “We continue to forge ahead with our strategy to disrupt and build market share in the building materials market.

“The full integration of our two most recent acquisitions into PLUMBING SUPERSTORE and the launch of the GOOD BUILD SUPERSTORE mark further, great progress in our mission to provide our customers with everything they need to build or maintain a home, and I look forward to the launch of another exciting, specialised superstore in the coming months.

“We have seen good progress on the strategic objectives and actions for 2023 outlined at the last results, which are delivering improved margins and, combined with overhead efficiencies, are expected to deliver improving profitability in the second half and full year results in line with our expectations.”