Vaping retailer Totally Wicked has reported a "resilient financial performance" despite the "significant disruption" caused by the Covid-19 pandemic as the shift to online sales helped protect its balance sheet.
The Blackburn-headquartered company has posted a turnover of £43.5m for the 12 months to March 31, 2021, up slightly from the £43.3m it achieved during the prior year.
Newly-filed documents with Companies House also confirm its pre-tax profits went from £2.1m to £1.9m over the same period.
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Sales generated online and over the phone jumped from £11.8m to £20.9m in the year while retail fell from £9m to £6.4m and wholesale went from £22.3m to £16.2m.
At its peak, the company had 170 of its employees on furlough while it received more than £1m in grants.
The number of people employed by the business during the financial year increased from 266 to 336.
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A statement signed off by the board said: "The vaping sector, like many other industries, has seen significant disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"However, important to note is that whilst there were structural changes to where consumers could purchase their products of choice due to the forced store closures, the group has delivered a resilient financial performance.
"Whilst Covid-19 has almost certainly accelerated the shift from bricks and mortar retail to online in all sectors, Totally Wicket remains absolutely committed to its retail store portfolio which consists of 152 dedicated vaping stores at the year end."
Totally Wicked was launched in 2008 by Jason Cropper and is now led by his brother Fraser as chairman and Marcus Saxton as CEO.