Angling Direct revenue up 5.1% despite European sales drop
Angling Direct has said it delivered a resilient first half performance, with revenue growing by 5.1% to £56.4 million.
In the six months to 31 July, UK revenue increased by 6.9%, despite this summer’s heatwave and drought impacting seasonal demand.
Subscribe to TRBTotal UK like-for-like sales rose by 2.9% as the retailer benefited from growth in its MyAD customer loyalty club, which now has over 696,000 subscribers compared with 600,000 a year earlier.
During the period, Angling Direct opened new stores in Crawley, Kettering and Gloucester, taking its total to 60 across England and Wales.
The company said its European business traded in line with expectations, with revenue declining by 30.4% to £1.8 million. Angling Direct is continuing to focus on its key markets in Germany and the Netherlands, maintaining a disciplined approach to trading as it targets profitable sales in the region to reduce overall European losses until conditions become more favourable.
Steve Crowe, chief executive of Angling Direct, said: “Despite the well-documented challenges to the UK consumer environment, alongside a UK-wide drought impacting fish and fisheries, I am pleased to report that we have delivered a resilient start to the year, making further progress against our recently upgraded medium-term objectives and gaining further share of the UK angling market.
“We remain confident in achieving our full-year consensus market expectations and are well positioned to capitalise on the attractive long-term growth opportunities across our markets as we deliver our medium-term objectives.”
