Out-of-town homewares retailer Dunelm Group has seen profit soar 15.1 per cent to £96.2 million in its full-year, it has been announced today.
Revenues rose 12.1 per cent to £603.7 million in the 52 weeks to June 30th 2012 while operating profit increased 14.3 per cent to £95.2 million.
Like-for-like sales grew by 3.1 per cent compared to the same period last year, which the retailer noted is “considerably above the home textiles market as measured by the British Retail Consortium”.
Dunelm continues to expand its offer both in-store and online, opening 12 new superstores while relocating two, taking the total number of superstores to 115 at year‘s end. Since the end of the year, a further three stores have opened in Cambridge, Oxford and Barnstaple and the group is contractually committed to opening a further nine.
Multichannel also saw strong growth, accounting for 2.5 per cent of revenues across the year as the retailer grew its offering in January with its mobile-friendly website launch and aims to further increase brand awareness through the trial of a 200-page catalogue this Autumn.
In spite of this uplift, Dunelm Group CEO Nick Wharton believes that it‘s multichannel proposition could be enhanced to ensure further revenue growth, which would require “technical enhancements to our site and the expansion of our logistics operations”, which are targeted to take place during the current financial year.
Commenting on the overall results, Wharton said: “Dunelm has delivered robust trading results in a demanding retail environment, with our strong focus on retailing excellence leading to increased market share on a like for like basis.
“We have also made good progress with our strategic development, scaling our business through new stores, multi-channel and strengthened infrastructure, while continuing to improve our specialist customer proposition.
“I would like to thank all my colleagues for their hard work and commitment in achieving this. Our financial position remains extremely strong.
“Looking ahead, we remain cautious of the UK consumer environment and its impact on our trading in the near term.
“However, with a strong new store pipeline, good momentum in multi-channel and a ‘Simply Value for Money‘ proposition that continues to resonate with a wide range of customers, we remain confident in the future growth prospects for the business.”
