Electronics specialist Maplin has announced that last year, it witnessed its strongest annual sales growth in seven years.
The South Yorkshire based retailer was sold to Rutland Partners in June 2014 for £85m, leaving the past owner Montagu with significant losses after he originally bought the firm for £244m in 2004.
It would seem losses are a thing of the past with Maplin‘s year-end results highlighting a total increase of 6.3% and sales of £237m. On a like for like basis sales grew by 4.3% – the strongest growth since 2008.
John Cleland, Chief Executive Officer at Maplin confirmed the overall success of the company:
“Our latest research with 6,000 shoppers shows a customer service index score of 92%, and an industry leading Net Promoter score of 72%, a massive improvement from 56% in late 2013.”
Cleland puts the company‘s success down to improvements on the retailer‘s products and services:
“The results show that our focus on improving the Maplin product and service proposition, along with our commitment to the best customer experience, are all working extremely well.”
Maplin‘s internet channels recorded full year growth of 20.6% now representing almost 10% of total sales. This is also linked to Maplin‘s investment in a new Hybris web platform in early 2014.
The business‘s product range has thrived, having almost tripled in the last two years, from 15,000 SKUs in 2013 to 44,000 in 2015. This has provided consumers with more choice and thus more reason to enter Maplin stores.
Product innovations include drones, CCTV cameras, portable power and powerline adapters. Over 10,000 units of drones were sold in the last 12 months.
The retailer will continue to push technology forward in 2015:
“In the year ahead we will continue to unite our sales and service channels for the best customer journey and will continue to invest in the help and advice our colleagues provide, as well as continuing to support product innovation. These are very exciting times for Maplin” Cleland adds.
