// Shoe Zone reports revenues of £69.9 million with a profit before tax of £3.1 million
// The business aims to double big box locations to approximately 100 and hybrid stores to 200 in the medium term
Budget shoe retailer Shoe Zone announced a strong comeback , for the 26 weeks to April 2.
Turnover at the business climbed by 73% to almost £70m, and the company reported profit before tax of £3.1m, compared to a £2.6m loss in the first half period of 2021.
The Leicester based company said in a release that the increase in revenue reflects trading in the stores for the whole of the period with less disruption to trade.
READ MORE: Shoe Zone posts profit after shuttering loss-making stores
Its success was buffered by strong online and shop sales, with the company doubling down on efficiencies: eight new Hybrid stores opened and 30 poor performing stores closed during this period.
The company’s digital sales fell to £11.8 million but more than doubled on a two year basis.
Commenting on the results, chief executive Anthony Smith said: “We are accelerating store relocations, refits and infrastructure changes at our head office, and further investment in digital. All of these areas are key to progressing our strategy and we will commit to spending at least 3% of turnover annually on capital projects.”
He added that physical stores are critical to the company’s ongoing success.
“Our ultimate goal is a doubling of Big Box locations to approximately 100 and an increase in Hybrid stores to 200 in the medium term. We anticipate trading from a similar sales square footage, albeit from a reduced number of locations.
“Digital growth fell back as expected as we re-opened all stores, and is now back to the normalised level expected but it is still 114.5% higher on a 2 year basis. We continue to increase drop ship partners, exclusive products and brands and we have introduced additional payment and delivery options to enhance customer experience.”
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