Sales down at listed furniture retailer

Doncaster-based DFS Furniture has reported a 6% fall in its gross sales in a trading update for the 26 week period to 29 December 2019.

The business says this drop, in comparison with the 26 week period ending 30 December 2018, reflects a “challenging consumer environment” impacting its footfall, particularly in August and September.

However, it also notes that order intake momentum has strengthened more recently, with a satisfactory start to it key winter sale trading period.

Its update adds: “We expect that full-year profit before tax and brand amortisation will be broadly in line with market expectations, subject to achieving the low single digit revenue growth that we assume in our plan.

“Our expected revenue growth is supported by recent trading momentum and the benefit of opening a number of new Group showrooms during the first half.

“We are mindful of the broader political and economic uncertainty that still exists. However, we have made good progress on our strategic initiatives, driving showroom conversion and online growth. Furthermore, we have appropriate cost saving actions in place to help mitigate continued market weakness.”

The Group will announce its interim results for the period ending 29 December 2019 on 10 March 2020.