Dunelm reports 2.9% Q4 sales growth despite heatwave impact on footfall

Dunelm has reported “solid” fourth quarter trading, with sales up 2.9% to £428 million after a strong performance from its summer living category.

The homeware retailer’s growth in the 13 weeks to 27 June was achieved despite trading being impacted by two separate weeks of heatwave conditions, which affected footfall.

The performance meant that Dunelm’s total sales for the year grew by 3.1% to £1.825 billion, with digital participation up to 42%, marking an increase of two percentage points on the prior year.

Dunelm is expecting full-year pre-tax profit to be in line with previous guidance and current consensus expectations of £210 million.

In the final week of the year, the retailer opened a new 34,000 square foot superstore in its latest format in Kingston-upon-Thames.

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It is expecting the number of stores opened in the new financial year to be towards the upper end of its medium-term guidance of between five and ten new superstores per year. It will also be investing in its existing estate to enhance the customer proposition, and last week relaunched its St Albans superstore after a refurbishment.

Shortly after the year end, Dunelm launched a ‘beta’ trial of an AI-powered shopping assistant within its app to help customers discover products more intuitively.

Clo Moriarty, chief executive of Dunelm, said: “We have delivered a solid performance both in the quarter and across the year. There is, however, much more we must do to build on our core strengths and realise our untapped potential.

“From expanding and improving our store estate to continuing to innovate digitally, we’re beginning to demonstrate what a bigger, better and bolder Dunelm can look like. As the market leader in a large and highly fragmented market, we believe our best growth opportunities are still in front of us.

“There’s hard work ahead but I’m confident in the plans that we have been developing over the past nine months and excited by what comes next. We look forward to sharing more in September.”