Outdoor retailer Mountain Warehouse has posted record half-yearly sales, but chief executive Mark Neale warned the declining pound value would prompted them to bump up prices next year.
The company said total sales for the six month period ending August 30 was up by 29.5 per cent to £76.8 million, with pre-tax profit sliding from £4.3 million to £4 million.
“The biggest problem for us is the currency. We’re hedged until February 2016, but after that we’re going to have to deal with the increased costs in three ways,” Neale told the Press Association.
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“A third will come out of securing better prices from factories, a third will be absorbed by the business and a third will be passed on to customers with selective price increases. We are not alone in that – most retailers will have to do the same, so we will still be better value versus others.”
Mountain Warehouse also shelved plans for stock market flotation – it had been planning a £200 million stock market debut – with Neale citing the Brexit vote as the reason.
Neale launched the business 19 years ago with a single shop, and it now has around 250 stores in the UK plus 50 overseas stores which span Poland, Germany and Ireland, the US and Canada.
There are plans to expand rapidly so that it would eventually have 300 UK stores and 300 international outlets.
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