The boss of the Dunelm homeware chain said the business was trading at around 70 per cent of normal turnover, after its stores were forced to close during the latest pandemic restrictions.
Chief executive Nick Wilkinson said the business had seen a huge rise in online sales in recent months, benefiting from people smartening up their homes during lockdown.
Revealing strong profits for the second half of 2020, he said Dunelm had taken the decision not to use the Government furlough scheme this year, offering its own support to staff who needed to be off work due to things such as self-isolation.
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Last year the business gave £14.5 million of furlough cash back to the Government after realising it had not been as badly impacted by the pandemic as other companies.
Mr Wilkinson said Dunelm’s digital sales had more than doubled in recent months, accounting for more than a third of all revenues in the second half of 2020 – the first half of Dunelm’s financial year.
Overall, sales at the Leicestershire-headquartered business were up almost a quarter for the six month period, at £719.4 million.
Pre-tax profits were up a third at £112.4 million while net cash in the bank was up to £141 million – compared to debts of almost £68 million a year earlier.
He said that was thanks to the whole Dunelm team pulling together during the pandemic.
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He told BusinessLive: “In the six months to Boxing Day we had to close our stores in England for four weeks in November and stores in other home nations at different times.
“It definitely dented our second quarter sales as we were classed as non-essential when most of our competitors – supermarkets, for instance, and shops like The Range – were classed as essential.
“Our stores are closed now but we are covering 70 per cent of sales through home delivery and click and collect.
“We are hugely appreciative of all of our colleagues across Dunelm.
“We have been resilient, adaptive and creative, and our suppliers have been brilliant throughout this.
“We have showed our resilience with over 100 per cent online growth, while product innovation is better than ever even though our buyers have not been in the office since last March.”
Right now the company’s head office in Syston, Leicestershire, has a skeleton staff of just 10-15, with the remaining 600-or-so people based there working from home.
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He said when the head office finally reopens, part-time home working would continue as an option for many of the people based there. In the meantime the business is carrying out a refurb of the head office, which is now a decade old.
Mr Wilkinson said while they had done well to keep pace with competitors whose stores had stayed open, they had not directly benefited from the loss of high street chains such as Debenhams, which always had a strong home offering.
He said that was partly down to the fragmented nature of a market which Dunelm has an 8 per cent share of.
Nationally the business has about 10,000 staff, and has added around 500 staff over the last year with two shops opening since last summer and another three coming soon.
He said: “Beyond the near-term uncertainty, we have never been more confident about the future. Dunelm is a market leader with a challenger brand mentality, in a large and growing segment.
“We have a clear runway to grow active customers and their frequency across our total retail system and to realise our long-term ambitions.”