Sofa giant DFS eyes expansion as sales jump
SOFA giant DFS said yesterday it is plotting further expansion overseas after launching in the Netherlands for the first time in the first half.
Chief executive Ian Filby said the Netherlands was “one of four markets” it had identified for expansion after conducting a global review. However, he declined to say where the other countries were.
The retailer, which made its stock market debut in March, posted a £14.4m loss in the six months to the end of January after shouldering £20m of costs related to float and its debt refinancing.
Excluding these one-off charges, underlying profits were up 16.5 per cent to £27.6m, while sales jumped 10.5 per cent to £431.5m.
“We are really pleased to have done a successful IPO and think that by doing that with an associated refinancing, our company is now in tip-top shape to take advantage of the market recovery we see coming through,” finance director Bill Barnes told City A.M.
The Doncaster-based firm, which also owns Dwell and Sofa Workshop, has 104 stores in the UK & Ireland and plans to open around three to five stores each year over the next few years.