Dunelm enjoyed higher sales, profits, market share, margin and customer numbers in the past year as it outperformed the market.
The chain saw sales rose by 4.1% to £1.7bn in the year to 29 June as sales volumes grew by 6.2%.
Gross margin advanced from 50.1% to 51.8% while market share of the homewares and furniture rose by 60pbs to 7.7% – the chain is eyeing a 10% share in the medium term. Customer numbers rose by 5.1%.
The chain says upholstery, backed by quick delivery, had continued to enjoy the ‘strong’ performance seen in the first half.
Dunelm says it has identified opportunities in the lighting and made to measure window sectors.
‘Lighting is a good example of the level of further opportunity we see ahead. We have consistently grown market share in the last five years and see headroom for more growth and innovation. Our in-house design capability allows us to coordinate across the wider Dunelm range, including our core textiles collections and cross-category labels such as Elements and our National History Museum collaboration. We are also working to accelerate our product development cycles to allow us to respond faster to trends and increase the choice we offer at all price and quality tiers. Our growing knowledge of more sustainable materials will also allow us to offer better choice to customers, as well as introduce more circular product design that uses more sustainable materials and facilitates repair and recycling.
‘The made-to-measure window treatments category is another example of our product elevation opportunity, where taking greater end-to-end control of the supply chain will enable accelerated growth and returns. Alongside our well-established manufacturing centre for made-to-measure curtains and Roman blinds, we have chosen to invest in more vertical integration. In FY24 we brought the manufacture of custom hard blinds in-house and started manufacturing roller blinds and Venetian blinds in the Sunflex business we acquired two years ago. Looking ahead, we are bringing shutters into our own manufacturing facility, with a plan to launch our new offer to customers in FY25. This will give us differentiated and advantaged product, the ability to specify materials and design, shorten UK lead times relative to competitors, and improve factory utilisation by aligning demand and supply capacity.’
