Norfolk’s largest independent furniture and furnishings retailer Aldiss reported record sales at both intake and delivered sales levels for the second year running when releasing results for the year ending 28th September 2024.
After the prior year’s achievement of sales surpassing the £25m (VAT inclusive order intake) milestone for the first time, a further record was achieved with sales on the same measure reaching £26.303m.
With less order book carry over into the 23/24 year, delivered sales had more measured growth at £21.550m – however this still represented a record performance.
The closing order book of £2.96m remains healthy and represents a robust, and controllable pipeline. The gross margin percentage was maintained at 43%. Profit before tax at £687,798 was virtually identical to that achieved in the prior year.
The business continued to reinvest with solar panels being added to the existing distribution centre, alongside the ongoing scheme of building works designed to improve handling, storage and delivery facilities at this site. This strong performance helped lift the balance sheet value to over £4m.
M.D. Darryl Simpson commented: “It is pleasing to be able to report on another set of record results. We operate in a challenging environment, which along with an increase in costs impacting our day-to-day operations, means our approach of generating strong sales alongside mitigating costs by an on-going programme of investment is more relevant than ever.”
In addition to these advances in trading, W J Aldiss Ltd paid down their outstanding “CBILS” loan, a legacy of the COVID disruption to trade in 2020.
