Out-of-town homewares retailer Dunelm saw like-for-like (LFL) sales for the half year ended 31 December grow by 1.1%, contributing to an 8.8% rise in total revenue for the period.
The group anticipates that pre-tax profit for the half year will be up from £48.5m to £52m on a LFL basis, but said figures were in part positively affected by comparison with the period of heavy snowfall in 2010.
The gross margin for the period is estimated to have improved by 10 basis points - one tenth of a percentage point - compared with the same period in the prior year, reflecting a small year-on-year decline in the second quarter as expected.
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"We continue to anticipate that gross margin over the full year will be broadly in line with the prior year. Dunelm has achieved robust trading results in a very demanding retail environment, and has continued to gain market share on a LFL basis," the firm said in a statement.
"We have also made significant progress on our longer term development plan, not only delivering a very ambitious store opening programme over the last quarter, but also making fundamental improvements to our on-line offer that have been well received by customers."
"We remain cautious about the impact of the UK consumer environment on our trading in the near term," the firm added, but expressed confidence in the future growth prospects for the business.
At 31 December the group had £40.4m net cleared funds.
NR
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