Dunelm 'comfortably' to exceed interim forecasts

3rd Nov 2009 07:33

Dunelm has forecast a much better than expected first half after strong early growth continued with like-for-like sales up by 15.1% in the 17 weeks to end October."The group is well positioned to achieve a sales and profit outturn for the first half of the financial year comfortably ahead of our previous expectations," chief executive Will Adderley said.The households goods retailer also expects the full year to be better than estimates but is more cautious over the second half."We remain much more cautious about the second half of the year, given the impact both of external economic factors and our far more challenging comparatives. Nevertheless we now expect that the strength of performance in the first half will allow us to achieve a full year result ahead of our previous expectations," he added. Total sales for the 17 weeks to 31 October were £155m against £123m, a 26% rise, with like-for-like sales 15.1% ahead. LFL sales in the first ten weeks rose by 16.1%. "The first half of FY10 ends on 2nd January 2010 and conditions for the remaining 9 weeks are expected to continue to be favourable," the statement added. For the rest of the year, Dunelm said the outlook is more uncertain. "The positive calendar effect related to the winter sale will reverse; the year-on-year benefit of competitor withdrawals will pass; and broader economic considerations including the planned increase in VAT, possible public spending cuts and expected higher levels of unemployment could have an adverse effect on general consumer spending," it said.