ScS swings to FY loss but reports sales surge after lockdown
By Frank Prenesti
Date: Tuesday 29 Sep 2020
(Sharecast News) - Sofa chain ScS swung to an annual loss due to the coronavirus lockdown, but reported a huge rise in sales at the end of the financial year as measures were eased.
The group posted a statutory pre-tax loss of £3.1m in the year to July 25 against profits of £14.3m a year earlier. Revenues fell by 19.5% to £268.1m as the lockdown forced the shuttering of all 100 stores.
Pent-up demand saw sales soar by 92.2% in the last nine weeks of the year after stores reopened at the end of May.
ScS said it was also "encouraged" by recent trading, with orders jumping by a better-than-expected 45.8% on a like-for-like basis over the first nine weeks of the new financial yearg, but warned of increased economic uncertainty.
Chief executive David Knight said: "We are delighted with the strong trading since the start of the new financial year."
"However, we are now entering our key autumn trading period and it remains difficult to predict the potential impact of the increased economic uncertainty, including the cessation of the overnment's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme at the end of October."
Internet sales rose 13.6% to £19.1m. In April and May, online orders jumped 78% as locked-down shoppers changed their shopping habits.
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