Dunelm boosts sales despite shunning Black Friday
Homeware brand Dunelm reported a jump in sales in the run-up to Christmas despite deciding not to take part in Black Friday discounting.
Like-for-like sales increased five per cent in the second quarter while total growth, including the benefit of new stores, was 6.2 per cent following the launch of its new digital platform.
Read more: Dunelm share price surges on strong sales and new website
Dunelm said that over the crucial Christmas trading period the new platform was able to host “significantly” more customers on the website than the previous site had capacity for.
In the first half of the year like-for-like sales jumped 5.6 per cent and total growth was six per cent, the company said in a trading update this morning.
Dunelm chief executive Nick Wilkinson said: “We are really pleased with our performance in the first half, building on the strong growth and profitability delivered last year.
“The second quarter was particularly strong in terms of sales and margin growth, on both one-year and two-year bases.”
The homeware retailer, which has 171 superstores after opening a new Bristol branch in December, did not participate in Black Friday or pre-christmas discounting
Peel Hunt analyst John Stevenson said: “Dunelm continues to take market share and deliver growth across all channels. The shares have performed well, but we continue to see potential for further upgrades over the short and medium term.”
Read more: Dunelm shares slide despite strong profit growth
In a note to investors this morning Shore Capital Markets said: “In our view, this is another robust trading update from a management team that continues to deliver.
“One of the themes this Christmas is that specialists with a multichannel proposition are winning and Dunelm hasn’t disappointed this festive period.”