Dunelm like-for-likes soar as wet weather boosts sales

The retailer said the wet weather led to a total revenue advance of about £8m in the quarter.

Total sales rocketed 21.2% to £149.7m in the period.

In the 52 weeks to June 30 like-for-likes were up 3.1%.

Dunelm now expects pretax profit for the year to be about £96m, which is ahead of current consensus expectations. 

The retailer estimated that about £2.5m of this “outperformance” is attributable to the “exceptional weather benefit over the second half of the financial year”.

For the full financial year gross margin is expected to increase by about 20-30 basis points.

Dunelm chief executive Nick Wharton said: “The final quarter has seen further strong progress throughout the business, with robust like-for-like sales trends. In addition, we have continued to drive growth through new stores and our multi-channel offering, which now represents around 3% of revenue. 

“Our continued focus on developing our ‘Simply Value for Money’ proposition has seen further market share gains.

“Looking ahead, we anticipate that consumer spending will remain under pressure.

“Nevertheless, with ten further store openings committed, a strengthening multi-channel offering and with our unique proposition resonating with a wide range of customers, we remain confident in the future growth prospects for the business.”

The retailer opened one new superstore in the quarter bringing its store count to 115.

Dunelm said the pipeline for new stores looks strong, with a total of 10 stores committed.

The retailer said it remains “highly cash generative”. It invested £38m in the business in the year, across new and refitted stores and core infrastructure including the online platform.