DFS Furniture PLC on Thursday reported slightly lower half-year revenue and no dividend, although overall earnings increased.

Shares in DFS were trading 11% higher at 145.00 pence on Thursday morning in London.

The Doncaster, England-based furniture retailer reported pretax profit of £15.8 million for the six months ended December 29, up from approximately £900,000 the previous year. Basic earnings per share multiplied to 5.1p from 0.2p.

Underlying pretax profit ‘almost doubled’ to £17.0 million from £8.7 million, while basic underlying EPS rose 89% to 5.3p from 2.8p.

Revenue edged down 0.1% to £504.5 million from £505.1 million, although gross sales rose 1.4% to £675.6 million from £666.2 million ‘due to a strengthening trading performance’. Order intake growth was 10.1% due to DFS’ ‘compelling customer proposition...in a subdued market’, against the prior year’s minus 1.1%.

DFS attributed its ‘broadly flat’ revenue to ‘an investment in our interest free credit offer to maximise cash gross margins in a challenging consumer landscape’.

‘Our improved profit performance in the first half is testament to the strength of our customer proposition, the dedication of our colleagues and our collective focus on operational excellence, evidenced through increased market shares and customer satisfaction scores,’ commented Chief Executive Officer Tim Stacey.

DFS however did not declare an interim dividend, having paid 1.1p per share for the first half of 2023. It said this was because of leverage, which was unchanged on-year at 1.6x, ‘remaining well above our target range’.

Looking ahead, DFS has raised its forecast for the full year and now expects underlying pretax profit of £25 million to £29 million. It said this was ‘as a result of the continued strong trading, good cost control and assuming no further supply chain disruption’.

‘We are on track to deliver full year profit performance ahead of market expectations and our confidence in the group’s capabilities and future potential has never been higher,’ Stacey commented. ‘Given our strong market position and relentless focus on executing our strategy, we are confident that we will achieve our £1.4 [billion] full year revenue and 8% PBT targets in the medium term and deliver strong returns for our shareholders.’

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