Dunelm Group plc (LON: DNLM), the UK’s leading homewares retailer, today announced its preliminary results for the 52 weeks to 29 June 2019.
| Year ended 29 June 2019 | Year ended 30 June 2018 Underlying1 | Year ended 30 June 2018 Exceptional items | Year ended 30 June 2018 Reported | Year on year change Underlying | Year on year change Reported | |
| Total revenue | £1,100.4m | £1,050.1m | – | £1,050.1m | +4.8% | +4.8% |
| Gross margin | 49.6% | 48.0% | – | 48.0% | +160bps | +160bps |
| Profit before tax | £125.9m | £102.0m | (£8.9m) | £93.1m | +23.4% | +35.2% |
| Free cash flow2 | £154.4m | – | – | £52.9m | – | +191.9% |
| Net debt3 | (£25.3m) | – | – | (£124.0m) | – | £98.7m |
| Basic EPS | 50.2p | 40.1p | – | 36.3p | +25.2% | +38.3% |
| Diluted EPS | 49.9p | 40.0p | – | 36.2p | +24.8% | +37.8% |
| Ordinary dividend | 28.0p | – | – | 26.5p | – | +5.7% |
| Special dividend | 32.0p | – | – | – | – | – |
Highlights
· Total like-for-like (“LFL”) sales increased by 10.7% with strong growth both in stores (7.7%) and dunelm.com (35.1%)
· Focus on core Dunelm, with improved customer proposition offering more choice, style and value
· Continuing growth in brand awareness and consideration helped drive an 8.5% increase in unique active customers4
· Ongoing development of digital capabilities with further plans in progress to enhance the multichannel customer experience
· Increased homewares market share5 by 0.6ppts
· Profit before tax of £125.9m up 23.4% (vs FY18 underlying profit before tax), reflecting higher sales, improved gross margins (+160bps) and better operational grip
· Excellent cash flow generation: Free cash flow of £154.4m (+£101.5m vs FY18) and a significant reduction in net debt to £25.3m (FY18: £124.0m)
· Final dividend of 20.5p brings the full year ordinary dividend to 28.0p, growth of 5.7%
· Special dividend of 32.0p, bringing total shareholder dividend for the year to 60.0p
Nick Wilkinson, Dunelm Group plc Chief Executive Officer, commented:
“As Dunelm celebrates its 40th anniversary, we are pleased to have delivered a strong performance during the year, with an improvement across all our customer, operating and financial metrics. In particular, the strong like-for-like revenue growth, both in stores and online, demonstrates the progress we are making with our multichannel proposition whilst maintaining the breadth and depth of our specialist customer offer in homewares.
“These results reflect our focus on the core Dunelm business and we see further opportunities to develop our Customer 1st plans, through extending product choice and value, improving our customer experience enabled by technology, and bringing more people to the brand.
“Recent trading performance has continued to be strong, reflecting both weak comparatives in the prior year and continued market share growth. However, we remain cautious about the full year outlook due to increased Brexit uncertainty and specifically the impact it may have on consumer spending as we enter our peak period.
“Looking to the future, I am excited about the opportunity to grow our business as we enhance and extend our specialist and multichannel offer, build on our market leading position and fulfil our purpose of helping everyone create a home they love.”
