Interior retailer warns of 'tough times' ahead
Tuesday, 08 Jul 2008 09:17
Curtains for the economy
Interiors retailer Dunelm is warning of tough times ahead as it sees a fall in growth.
The firm, which runs the Dunelm Mill chain of 89 homeware out of town stores, saw a 2.4 per cent fall in fourth-quarter underlying sales.
Total sales for the year to June 28th stood at £391.8 million – but like-for-like sales were up just 2.5 per cent.
In the last three months, like-for-like sales fell 2.4 per cent to £89.8 million.
Will Adderley, Dunelm chief executive, said: "Whilst many home-related retailers are feeling an impact from negative macro-economic factors, Dunelm is more resilient than most.
"As for the coming financial year, we have to assume that the market will continue to get tougher."
However, he claimed the firm could exploit the market weakness, using its simple ‘value for money' focus to outperform the competition.
"We are as determined as ever to keep expanding the business and there is still huge potential for us to keep growing our store portfolio," Mr Adderly concluded.
The firm's share price fell 4.8 per cent in early trading to 118.50p.