Strong performance at furniture retailer, despite showroom closures

DFS Furniture has reported Group revenue of £572.6m in its interim results for the 26 weeks ended 27 December 2020, up 17.3% year-on-year.

And the listed Doncaster-headquartered business says its pre-tax profits on an underlying basis and excluding brand amortisation have increased by £59.9m to £76.5m.

The percentage of revenues from digital sales over this period rose from £18.4% to 25.7%.

DFS says despite the ongoing impact of the pandemic, which required it to temporarily close many of its showrooms, along with external supply chain disruption, it has been able to continue taking orders, leveraging investments made in its online capabilities.

Its report notes: A growing share of customers choose to transact entirely online, although the vast majority continue to visit our showrooms to conduct the all-important ‘sit-test’, with ‘comfort’ the number one reason why a customer selects a particular model.

“We are committed to maintaining an attractive showroom estate which benefits from regular refurbishments and technological enhancements.”

Tim Stacey, Group chief executive officer, said: “This strong first half profit and cash flow performance is a true reflection of the supreme efforts put in by our teams right across the Group since the start of the pandemic.

“Our business has proven to be resilient throughout the period despite showroom closures and a significant amount of external disruption in our supply chains.

“The investments we’ve made in our digital channels have generated exceptional revenue growth.

“Consequently our order bank remains well above normal levels and, subject to showrooms reopening by 12 April 2020, our central planning scenario is for an expected full year profit before tax outcome of approximately £105m, with further benefits to be realised in next year’s financial results.

“We’re committed to our strategy to lead sofa retailing in the digital age with our proven integrated retail model. 

“We expect to see a good level of activity in the home market as Covid-19 restrictions ease and, having accelerated the execution of our strategy and grown our market share, we are well set for future growth.”