Dunelm boasts strong start to year

15th Sep 2009 07:04

Specialist homewares retailer Dunelm has reported full-year profit bang in line with expectations and said it is 'very pleased' with a big rise in sales at the start of its new financial year.Pre-tax profit for the 53 weeks to 4 July 2009 jumped 9% to £53.5m and by 6.8% to £52.5m on a comparable 52-week basis. Overall sales rose 8.2% over the year to £423.8m, or by 6.3% for the 52 weeks.Like for like sales were down 0.5% on both counts, but that was much better than the 5.6% decline witnessed in the first half of the year.For the first 10 weeks of the financial year, to 12 September, total sales have grown by 26.5% and like-for-like sales are up an impressive 16.1%.'The strong like for like sales performance in the latter weeks of the financial year has continued through the rest of the summer and we are very pleased with the start to our new financial year,' said chief executive Will Adderley. 'We are confident that our 'Simply Value For Money' proposition will continue to appeal to customers in the current economic climate. Our business is not significantly reliant on big-ticket purchases - our average basket remains below £30.' Adderley also said the relatively weak state of the commercial property market offered good opportunities to open more stores.But he did caution that it would be 'very challenging' to maintain its recent trading performance as like for like sales comparatives start to strengthen, and the recession subdues consumer spending