Sales grew in Dunelm‘s first quarter, which saw strong trading in offline sales. The homewares retailer‘s e-commerce business is also performing well, although online sales are not maintaining the salient growth rate that they have been recently.
Like-for-like sales at stores in the 13 weeks to 3 October were up 4.4% to £171.8m and home delivery sales in the first quarter were up 25.9% YOY to £11.5m, compared to a 43.5% growth rate in the preceding quarter and an 83.8% YOY jump in the same period of 2014.
The group, which has 149 stores in the UK, revamped its website during the period, and CEO Will Adderley said that the company expects to see substantial further growth through this channel.
Adderley said that the positive quarter reflected “the steps we have taken to refresh our product range, improve seasonal merchandise and to create an improved shopping experience for our customers in-store.
The growth achieved in LFL store sales is particularly pleasing, and we maintained a solid performance in home delivery following the launch of our new website in July.”
Dunelm has also announced its acquisition of Fogarty, an almost 200 year-old British bedding brand.
Commenting on the purchase, Adderley said: “I am delighted that we have acquired the rights to the Fogarty brand. This investment, as with the acquisition of Dorma a few years ago, adds an important brand to our portfolio. It further strengthens our specialist homewares retail proposition and provides a number of potential growth opportunities for the medium term.”
