Family furniture retailer Fishpools has reported a decline in sales and profit, as performance fell back to pre-pandemic levels.

According to its latest filed accounts for the year ended 28 January 2024, total sales fell 14.4% to £29.1m from £34m in 2023.

Pre-tax profit resulted at £45,000, down from £779,000 recorded the previous year.

Stated within its report, the company said: “This year marked a significant milestone for the business as we celebrate our 125th birthday. We have reached this point through decades of commitment to our core values of superb product choice and selection, leading customer service and continual reinvestment in the business and our people.

“As we reported last year, the normalisation of trading levels following the turbulence of the pandemic years had intersected with rising cost-of-living pressures, which started to have an impact on big-ticket retail sales across the UK.

“Whilst we were not immune to these sector-wide challenges, our order intake performance for last year was in line with our initial projections. This has been achieved whilst starting substantial updates to our furniture presentations in store and resisting the temptation to sacrifice margins to buy short-term volumes.

“As sales and margins returned close to pre-pandemic levels, we continued to invest in our people, with a new learning and development strategy, together with substantial market-driven salary increases across the board and a very healthy profit related bonus scheme for all employees.

“Throughout the year, we have continued to focus on optimising efficiency and effectiveness in everything we do, reviewing how we blend technology and people to best provide a fantastic customer experience for this market.

“Despite these challenges and with the end of Government Covid support, we effectively managed controllable costs, with retail profit returning to pre-pandemic levels, although naturally lower than recent record years.”