The Works emerges stronger after ‘intensely challenging year’

The Works, which also sells books, stationery and toys, posted total sales down 19.7% to £180.7m last year, when it made a statutory pre-tax loss of £2.8m versus £18.0m the previous year. On an adjusted basis, The Works mad a loss of £3.6m compared to a profit of £2.4m the year before.

The retailer said that store like-for-like sales rose 6% when they were able to trade in the year to May 2, and online revenues climbed 120.9%.

In the first 11 weeks of the new financial year to July 18, The Works reported that trading was ”ahead of our internal plan”.

On a two-year basis, like-for-likes were up 13%.

The Works chief executive Gavin Peck said: “It has been an intensely challenging year due to the Covid-19 pandemic but, because of our quick action, careful cost management and can-do culture, The Works has emerged as a stronger business.

”Whilst we couldn’t control temporary store closures, we focused on the things we could control, such as improving operations, managing costs carefully and continuing to invest in our online offer.

“If, at the beginning of FY21, we had known that our shops would be closed for nearly six months of the year, we would not have expected to achieve this resilient performance. The foundations we laid before the pandemic helped us to navigate the year much more successfully.

”We had already begun to de-emphasise store openings in favour of accelerating profitable digital growth, and driving improvements through the existing store estate, with the aim of being not just a bigger version of ourselves, but a better version.

”The net result is that we have ended the year in a strong financial position, with no bank borrowings and are much more effective operationally than we were before the pandemic.”

The Works also said that chair Dean Hoyle has decided to step down in September. He will be replaced by former Tesco director Carolyn Bradley.