Dunelm Group PLC (LSE:DNLM) said it expects to report profit and revenue for financial year 2022 slightly head of analyst consensus forecasts, on the back of market share gains and a recovery from Covid-19.
The homewares retailer also announced it appointed Alison Brittain, currently the CEO of Whitbread PLC (LSE:WTB), as an independent non-executive director and chair designate.
Brittain will join the Dunelm board on 7 September and is expected to succeed current chair Andy Harrison “comfortably in advance” of the expiry of his nine-year term in September 2023.
In a trading update, Dunelm said pre-tax profit for the 52-week period to 25 June 2022 is forecast to be slightly ahead of market estimates of £207mln. The company posted pre-tax profits £158mln in the previous year.
The numbers were boosted by particularly strong profits in the first half, when store sales bounced back following re-opening after lockdown, and robust trading in the second half, it said.
Sales for the full year amounted to £1.55bn, up 16% on the previous year and 41% higher than pre-pandemic 2019. Total sales included “significant” market share gains, Dunelm noted.
Digital sales of £537mln were more than two and a half times higher than pre-Covid levels.
In the fourth quarter of financial year 2022, sales fell by 6%, which was still slightly above market expectations. The drop reflected a strong comparative period the year before, when sales surged on pent-up demand as stores opened again in April after the third national lockdown.
Digital sales made up 37% of total sales in the final quarter, the company said.
The current year has begun well, it added, with a “solid start” to trading in the first half of July.
Noting the challenging economic environment and cost-of-living pressures, Dunelm CEO Nick Wilkinson said: "The macro outlook remains uncertain and we cannot predict exactly how consumers will respond to the increasing pressures on their finances.
“We are currently seeing customers adapt to this environment in their own ways, utilising the breadth of our offer and price points across homewares; value and choice has always been at the very core of Dunelm, and we are intensely focused on continuing to strengthen this for our customers.”