ScS back in the black after strong recovery

Furniture and flooring specialist ScS has hailed a “strong year of recovery” after returning to profitability and reporting soaring sales.

Gross sales at ScS across 53 weeks ended 31st July 2021 increased by +21% to £324.5m (£268.1m in 2020), reports the retailer in its audited preliminary results, while revenue was up +21.6% to £310.6m.

Gross profit increased +22.9% to £147.0m, while operating profit stood at £26.8m. Profit before tax was £22.7m, up significantly from a loss of £3.1m in 2020.

The results include business rates relief of £10.2m, but no CJRS benefits.

One year LFL order intake was down just -1.5%, despite ScS’ stores being closed for 17 weeks in 2021, compared with nine weeks in 2020 (and down just -6.5% on 2019). Online sales increased by +146% to £46.9m.

CEO Steve Carson comments: “Trading since the start of the new financial year has remained strong, with two year LFL order intake growth of +11.9% for the nine weeks to 2nd October 2021. One year LFL orders have fallen -21% as a result of the significant bounce following the lockdown in the prior year.

“We are delighted with the strong orders performance since the start of the new financial year. However, we are cognisant of the ongoing challenges we, and many other businesses, are facing with regards to the supply chain, including driver shortages, raw material increases and shipping costs and delays.

“We have demonstrated throughout the pandemic that we have a flexible and resilient business model which is able to adapt to changes in the macro-environment whilst still delivering for our customers. We look forward to embedding the new purpose and mission statement into our operations and delivering on our refreshed strategy for future growth, which we are setting out today.”

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