Homewares specialist Dunelm reported that it underperformed the market in its third quarter as stores were shut during lockdown, but it still expects full-year results to beat expectations.

Dunelm posted a 17% decline in sales to £237m in the period to March 27, when digital sales rocketed 70 percentage points to account for 92% of the total.

In the year to date, Dunelm’s total sales climbed 10% to £956m. 

The retailer said it was “pleased with performance given the restricted trading conditions” and that the homewares market overall had remained strong.

However, Dunelm added: “As a result of our retail estate being closed, we have underperformed the market during the quarter, reflecting that other retailers selling homewares have been classified as essential and have remained open.”

The retailer expects “a strong consumer response to the lifting of the restrictions” and said that “assuming that the majority of our stores open as expected on 12 April and there are no further Covid-19 restrictions this financial year, we expect to end the year modestly ahead of the top of the current range of analyst expectations”.

Chief executive Nick Wilkinson said: “In a quarter when we were largely unable to open our stores, it has been very encouraging to see the strength of our digital channels which have enabled us to cover over 83% of sales from the same period last year.” 

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