When Nick Wilkinson became the new boss of Dunelm 19 months ago, the business was having a bit of a lull.
The homewares giant – which was launched on Leicester market 40 years ago and still has its national headquarters in Leicestershire – had lost one CEO for “personal reasons”, and then reported a big drop in pre-tax profits. Shares were on a downward slide.
Mr Wilkinson, who was previously chief executive of West Sussex-based cycling specialist Evans Cycles, appears to have enjoyed his time in charge, and the share value has been on the up.
Yesterday the business announced a strong set of results for the last year with turnover up 5 per cent at £1.1 billion and pre-tax profits up 25 per cent at £125.9 million.
But the good news came with a caveat – a fear that Brexit could hit the retailer’s peak trading period in the run-up to Christmas.
The share price dropped 10 per cent on the news yesterday morning only to slowly pic up to around 820p, 7 per cent down on the start of the day.
Mr Wilkinson said he was “really pleased with these results”, but how the markets reacted to the company’s results was out of his hands.
He told BusinessLive: “I think that we should see where we are in three months time when our first quarter results our out.
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“Our view on tough times is that the best get stronger, so as a proud, Leicestershire-based business with amazing colleagues, if the consumer market is changing we will thrive.
“I think that fundamentally it’s a really good business. What has happened in the last 18 months is that we have regained our confidence.
“The first phase of the business in the 1980s was high street stores, then a really good growth from rolling out superstores across the country – and we are still opening new stores, mainly in the South West.
“The next phase is growing the brand and being a bigger part of more people’s homes – we have 10-11 million unique customers a year, and there are 26 million homes in the 海角视频, so we would love to grow our reach.
“More people want to be served digitally and online growth has been great.
“And I think the products we sell are just as relevant whether you are refreshing or upgrading your existing home or buying a new one.”
Dunelm famously started out as a market stall selling curtains in Leicester in 1979 and the founding Adderley family still have a significant interest.
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Today it employs about 10,000 people and has 171 stores, the most recent opening in Boston, Lincs.
Prior to Dunelm and his five years at Evans, Mr Wilkinson was chief executive of 1.4 billion euro turnover Maxeda DIY, a Belgian and Dutch home improvement retailer.
He also spent eight years with Dixons Retail, where he was group buying director and managing director of Currys.
His early career was at Unilever and management consultants McKinsey & Co, and he holds a degree from Cambridge University.
He said Dunelm had an 8.7 per cent share of the homewares market – if you excluded furniture – so there was definitely room for growth.
And while many big name retailers are cutting down their store estates as online sales grow and consumer spending dips, Dunelm is opening four or five stores a year, half of them new stores and half of them relocations.
And while Brexit is a concern, he said they had done everything they could to mitigate the potential impacts.
Only about one per cent of Dunelm’s stock comes from Europe, but there is a risk from potential disruption at deep-sea ports, especially in the case of a no-deal.
An October 31 Brexit would be at the start of their peak winter trading period, he said.
To put that into context, Dunelm turned over £248.2 million in July, August and September last year, compared to £303.6 million in October, November and December.
He said: “We are very cautious. Lots of people are talking about supply risks.
“We have done lots of work around planning and there is 12 weeks worth of stock in our warehouses and with our suppliers.
“We think we have got supply covered, but there are concerns about consumer confidence, whether people have to move their spending to food if prices go up, or save money for a rainy day.
“Homewares are discretionary and that can affect spending.”