ScS owner invests £57 million in store upgrades
ScS owner Poltronesofà is close to completing a £57 million transformation of the sofa retailer’s 96 UK shops as it looks to offer customers an enhanced in-store experience.
Operating over 310 stores across Europe, including Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Malta and Cyprus, the group acquired ScS in January 2024 as part of the next stage of its European expansion plan.
The investment is expected to complete at the beginning of August 2025 with the refit of the last 15 stores. The major refurbishments have included introducing store layouts in the style of Poltronesofà’s European stores and improving the quality and style of collections to ensure the offering is right for UK customers. Shoppers can also take advantage of Poltronesofà’s flexible “any sofa, any fabrics” offer where 66 styles of sofa are available to order in a choice of more than 200 different fabrics or leathers.
The transformation has also involved training for UK salespeople at the Poltronesofà “university”, which provides over 650 hours of courses at the group’s Forli headquarters to enhance the skills and product knowledge of its sales force.
Never Miss a Retail Update!Poltronesofà said the UK business is performing in line with management expectations, with a close to breakeven EBITDA performance on revenues of £233 million in the 11 months from the acquisition. The company is also seeing a return to orders growth in refitted stores in the current year and expects to be highly profitable in 2026.
The wider Poltronesofà group reported European revenues of over €640 million and EBITDA of €122 million in 2023 before the ScS acquisition.
Poltronesofà Group chief financial officer Luca Mazzotti said: “The financial strength of the Poltronesofà business across Europe gives us the ability to invest for growth in the UK and we are already reaping the benefits of that investment.
“Over 30 years in business we have two burning obsessions – the quality of our products and delivering value to our customers. Now we are bringing those two obsessions to our UK customers with amazing store experiences and a superb new range of products and fabrics.
“Poltronesofà acquired ScS to enter a key market and support the next stage of its development, providing the capital needed to accelerate its ambitions. This significant investment – in product, stores and staff – shows us delivering on those promises.”
