The parent group behind online furniture retailer Furniturebox has reported a growth in sales, driven by its launch in the US and new distribution hub.
According to the latest filed accounts for the year ended 31 July 2023, total sales rose 33.3% to £21.2m from £15.9m in 2022.
UK sales increased 23% to £18.7m from £15.2m, while EU revenues declined 48.7% to £349,000 from £681,000. Rest of the world sales delivered £2.1m.
Pre-tax losses resulted at £1.1m, down from a profit of £2.3m recorded the previous year. Gross profit margin was down from 32.81% to 23.95%.
Stated within its report, the company said: “It is pleasing to see a sizeable increase in our turnover, and it was expected that profits would be greatly reduced due to fixed overhead commitments we made for future expansion.
“The turnover increase reflects some of the work we have been doing coming to fruition, however, we believe the fruits of much of this work will be reflected in the following months and years. We are very proud of our organic growth and this year it is pleasing to see that despite huge investments and increases in costs, we have managed to maintain acceptable business finances.
“We expect to see our top-line turnover increasing and fixed overheads staying stable, resulting in a return to healthy profitability in 2023/24.
“The 2022 to 2023 financial year was our first full year in our new Chippenham distribution centre. It has been both an exciting and challenging period for the business, culminating in the solidification of our growth platform from a physical, personnel, and structure perspective.
“Just like the previous few years, the macro environment has been turbulent, however, relatively speaking it has been a much more stable environment for our business. We saw supply chain issues ease, with both production returning to pre-Covid capacity and shipping rates returning to acceptable levels.
“Despite some large domestic worries, including interest rate rises and cost of living problems, our offering has held firm and we have seen some encouraging signs of relative spending ‘normality’ returning. This year has been a foundational year that will allow us to capitalise on all the opportunities we see in the market.
“We launched in the US at the start of our financial year and have seen some sizeable growth over the last 12 months. This has resulted in 10% of our revenue coming from the US and thus our revenue composition mix diversifying.
“Despite the risks involved with operating in a different geography, our strategic approach has mitigated the potential downside and we have been able to capitalise on the market opportunity. We will continue to grow these overseas sales, but maintain a cautious approach and not overexpose our US position.”
