Last checked at 5 Nov 2020 07:00
5 November 2020
DFS Furniture plc
COVID-19 Update
● Manufacturing and deliveries continuing through current national lockdowns
● Robust balance sheet; net cash position with access to over £300m of funds
● Current lockdown measures not expected to materially impact profitability for the first half
DFS Furniture plc today issues an update in the light of increasing restrictions on the movement of people and trading activity being put in place by Governments to restrict the spread of COVID‐19 in many of the markets where the Group's brands trade.
Update on showrooms, manufacturing and delivery
As of today, the 5th November, following Government legislation all physical showrooms in England, the Republic of Ireland and Wales, are temporarily closed, which together represent 181 of our 208 showrooms across the estate. All showrooms in all other territories are open and trading.
Under current legislation, in England our showrooms (169) are closed for four weeks from 5 November to 2 December. Our Welsh showrooms (7) are due to re-open on Monday 9 November, following 16 days of closure. Our Irish showrooms (5) are due to reopen on 1 December, following six weeks of closure.
Our websites across all brands and territories remain open for business and are performing well. Based on our previous experience of lockdown we expect our online business to improve further. This will be supported by the temporary transfer of showroom colleagues to other areas of the business, including remotely assisting customers with web purchases.
Notwithstanding the showroom restrictions, we continue to manufacture, deliver and install orders safely into customer homes in all territories. Given the current very strong order bank levels, and the delivery lead times we are therefore operating at, we do not expect that this period of showroom closure will materially impact revenues and profitability for the first 26 weeks to 27 December 2020.
Furthermore, our experience of the prior lockdown periods was that substantially all order intake disrupted during the lockdown period was either deferred until showrooms reopened or was captured online.
Strong Financial Position
Our balance sheet position remains robust. With the strength of recent trading, helped by associated working capital inflows, we currently hold a net cash position, with access to over £300m of available cash and undrawn bank facilities.
Our next scheduled trading update is the 12 January 2021, covering trading performance over the 26 weeks to 27 December 2020.
Enquiries:
DFS (enquiries via Tulchan)
Tim Stacey (Group CEO)
Mike Schmidt (Group CFO)
Phil Hutchinson (Investor Relations)
investor.relations@dfs.co.uk
Tulchan
James Macey-White
Jessica Reid
Amber Ahluwalia
+44 (0)20 7353 4200
dfs@tulchangroup.com
About DFS Furniture plc
DFS is the clear market leading retailer of living room furniture in the United Kingdom. We design, manufacture, sell and deliver to our customers an extensive range of furniture products. The business operates a retail network of living room furniture stores in the United Kingdom and Europe, together with an online channel. These have been established and developed gradually over 50 years of operating history. We attract customers to our stores and websites through our substantial and continued investment in nationwide marketing activities and our reputation for high quality products and service, breadth of product ranges and price points and favourable consumer financing options.