Sales have decreased for the nine months ending 28 April 2012 for the upholstered furniture retailer DFS it was announced today.
Total sales compared to last year dropped from £486 million to £446.8 million. Money poured into launches of new stores has cost the company, meaning an EBITDA overall sliding of £44.5 million down from £56.2 million in 2011.
12 new stores were opened in the last year alone with their first one opened outside the UK in Dublin.
A store has been opened on Tottenham Court Road to attract commerce in the busy London shopping district.
This extension of its portfolio has seen the creation of over 500 jobs for the retail industry.
DFS Chief Executive Officer Ian Filby said, “The pre-opening and launch costs of new stores reduced EBITDA by £3.1 million during the first nine months, and there was a further £0.5 million expense associated with the expansion of our UK manufacturing capacity by adding additional production shifts at two of our factories.
“In total, our expansion is creating 500 new retailing and manufacturing jobs in the UK.”
Focus of the upholstered furniture retailer has been to increase its presence in the market and the new store launches have provided a share of the profits over the nine months.
Filby feels DFS has made a steady performance in climate where the consumer is cutting back on the big ticket items, “In what has remained a challenging trading environment, we have continued to focus on maximising DFS‘s market share and increasing the efficiency of our operations.
“As we expected, this has delivered an improving trend in our performance during the year, with the third quarter benefiting from a growing sales contribution from new stores and improved margins as the result of more cost-effective media buying.
He concluded, “On 26 May we opened the twelfth new store of our current year in Tottenham Court Road, establishing a presence on one of the busiest shopping streets in central London. We have also continued to develop our successful and growing online business.”
