Monday 07 October 2019 5:05 pm

Angling Direct records 21 per cent rise in H1 sales

The UK’s largest fishing retailer Angling Direct has defied High Street trends by recording a significant rise in first-half sales.

Angling Direct recorded £26.6m of sales in the six months to September, which represented a 21 per cent annual increase.

This was underpinned by a 41 per cent jump in in-store sales and a 15 per cent rise in like-for-like sales.

Angling Direct executive chairman Martyn Page said the company was able to defy a wider downturn in the retail industry due to several reasons.

“Our efforts on social media to raise brand awareness have created a lot of momentum,” he said.

“Having extra stock available in every store also helped drive that increase in sales.”

While many bricks and mortar stores are struggling to stay profitable, Angling Direct continues expanding its high street footprint.

The increase in revenue comes off the back of the company opening four new stores in the first half.

There are also plans to open another four stores over the next year.

“Fishing is a tangible thing and people like to come into the store and still feel the product,” Page said.

“We’ve used government data to work out where the most fishing happens and opened stores in those locations accordingly.”

The company’s stock price rose 2.5 per cent to 60p after the release of the results.

However, Angling Direct chief executive Darren Bailey said the wider retail downturn was affecting the company’s stock price.

“We’ve been impacted by the whole retail sector and tarred by the retail brush,” he said.

“We’re outperforming our competitors, but we have to peddle very hard to get anything going for the share price.”