Jones Bootmaker has delivered improving trade this year with like-for-like sales up 17% in the four months to the end of May.
The improvement came as the footwear retailer plans to double its online sales.
The retailer expects EBITDA to rise to £4m for the year to January 30, up from £1.4m a year earlier. Sales are expected to increase 8.1% year on year from £84m.
Jones Bootmaker chief executive Ken Bartle attributed the strong growth to the greater selection of brands in its stores as well as weak comparatives.
“Our ranges are better than last year,” he said. “We’ve changed the range so we have more branded stock than just Jones and this is giving us more sales.”
The retailer, which stocks brands including Cat, Hush Puppies and Timberland, plans to overhaul its website and aims to double online sales to £5m next year.
The site, which was launched five years ago, will be redesigned by an agency with a focus on easier navigation and added features such as recommending other items to customers, zoom and allowing customers to turn products around on screen.
The website is poised to be relaunched by the autumn.
Jones Bootmaker, which operates 93 stores, plans to open five shops this year, in Southampton, Aberdeen, Bath, Glasgow and Leicester, as well as a replacement store in Liverpool. Bartle said the state of the market allows for good deals with struggling landlords.
The new stores will follow the redesign used for last year’s openings, which moved the retailer towards a more contemporary, clean, tiled-floor and white-box aesthetic.
Jones Bootmaker appointed finance director Jeremy Todd as managing director at the beginning of the year.
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