New stores help sales at Dunelm

5th Oct 2011 08:10

Out-of-town homewares retailer Dunelm saw like-for-like sales fall by 2% in the first quarter, but a 7.3% contribution from new space drove total sales up by 5.3%.Total sales were £133.4m in the 13 weeks ended 1 October, up from £126.7m the year before."Despite the challenges provided by the UK consumer environment, our Simply Value for Money proposition continues to resonate with customers in both established and new stores," said chief executive Nick Wharton."Given the current environment we continue to take a disciplined approach to operating costs. Nevertheless, we remain confident about the growth opportunities provided both from store expansion and via the web, where we have just completed the launch of full Reserve and Collect functionality," he said.The group opened two new stores during the period bringing the estate to 104. Ten new stores are due to be opened in the second quarter and the firm expects its full-year opening programme to total 15 stores. Additionally, two other stores went through a major refit in the quarter.As expected, gross margin increased year-on-year, albeit at a reduced rate, by 50 basis points.BC