4th Feb 2016 08:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - DFS Furniture PLC on Thursday said it maintained good sales growth in the first half of its financial year and that its expectations for the full year remain unchanged as it announced the retirement of its finance director, Bill Barnes.
The furniture retailer said a "healthy furniture market environment" and the success of its strategic initiatives meant gross sales in the 26 weeks ended January 30 grew by 7% year-on-year.
Sofa Workshop, Dwell and DFS Netherlands all contributed encouragingly to overall group sales growth, DFS said, adding that given this progress it has continued to invest operationally to support future growth of those businesses. As a result, operating costs have increased in line with expectations.
Meanwhile, Finance Director Bill Barnes has decided to retire in the summer. Commercial Finance Director Nicola Bancroft will become chief financial officer from August 1.
"Given broadly stable general macro-economic trends in the UK and all strategic initiatives on track, the board believes that the group is in a strong position to sustain its record of sales growth, market share capture and cash generation," DFS said in a statement.
"Based on the trading performance over the first half, our expectations for the group's financial performance in the full year remain unchanged," the company added.
DFS will release its first-half results on March 23.
Shares in DFS were trading up 0.03% at 322.10 pence early on Thursday.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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