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(Alliance News) - Dunelm Group PLC on Thursday said that it expects full-year revenue to be up annually and for profit to beat market expectations.
The homewares retailer said it expects total sales in the financial year ended July 1 to be up 6% annually to GBP1.64 billion. In financial 2022, the company reported total sales of GBP1.58 billion.
Digital sales made up 36% of total sales in the financial year.
Leicester-based Dunelm noted that financial 2023 pretax profit is expected to be slightly ahead of current market expectations of GBP188 million. However, this remains below reported pretax profit of GBP212.8 million in financial 2022.
Dunelm said that this reflects its "continued robust sales performance, strong commercial disciplines and tight operational grip on costs."
In the fourth quarter of the year, sales were also up 6% year-on-year to GBP381 million. Digital sales made up 39% of total sales in the quarter.
"We remain, as ever, focussed on offering our customers a great choice of products and outstanding value across all our ranges and price points. During the quarter our customers were able to take advantage of great offers during our summer sale, and we reduced prices on over 1,000 lines. We are pleased that in the quarter we saw particularly strong volume growth," Dunelm said.
It also noted that it had a "strong" performance, despite a backdrop of increasing input cost prices for much of the year and high inflation.
Looking ahead, Dunelm said it has a "very significant" headroom to deliver further profitable growth. However, it warned that the consumer outlook remains uncertain, although it is pleased with trading so far in the new financial year.
Chief Executive Officer Nick Wilkinson said: "The breadth and relevance of our product offer has continued to resonate with our home-loving customers over the last quarter of the year. This has been reflected in our strong financial performance despite the challenging broader consumer backdrop."
Shares in Dunelm were up 2.3% to 1,141.99 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Sophie Rose, Alliance News reporter
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