CMO Group PLC

("CMO" or "the Group")

Year-end Trading Update (unaudited)

Continued rapid growth

CMO Group PLC, the UK's largest online-only retailer of building materials, today announces a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2021.  

Total sales for the year were up 47% to £77m (2020: £52m) with H2 revenue of £38m, an increase of 33% over H2 in 2020. Like-for-Like sales grew 12% year-on-year, 30% over two years.

The strong sales growth has been driven by improved revenue from CMO's online superstores and from continued growth in Total Tiles, acquired in December 2020, which saw 10% year-on-year growth. JTM Plumbing has performed in line with expectations since acquisition in October 2021. Progress is being made towards the launch of plumbingsuperstore.co.uk which is expected in Q2.

Prevalent during H2 were the widely reported industry headwinds encompassing delays and shortages of product, compounded by increased disruption from Covid in Q4. A continued focus on demand planning and a 29% increase in warehousing capacity to support an increased stock holding mitigated the worst of this disruption, however it is estimated that during H2 the opportunity cost to the Group of these issues amounted to approximately 5% of expected sales.

Despite this, we continued to experience strong growth in H2, with total sales growth of 33% and one and two year like-for-like growth of 1% and 28%, demonstrating the resilience of our business model. In the nine trading weeks prior to this statement, we have seen product availability improving with like-for-like revenues on dispatched products being 13% ahead of last year.

With strong sales growth, and despite the headwinds above, we anticipate reporting full year adjusted EBITDA* in-line with market expectations.

As we enter a new financial year, the markets in which we operate remain buoyant. With a strong order book and a disruptive position in its chosen markets, the Board is confident that CMO will deliver continued growth in the year to come.

*Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, exceptional and acquisition costs.

Dean Murray, CEO of CMO Group PLC, said: 

"We have had another good period of strong growth further enhancing our proposition and growing our customer base by over 30%**.

"Our markets remain robust and we will continue to disrupt the traditional marketplace through continuing to being innovative and expanding the breadth of products for our customers.

"With our strong order book and positive signs of some abatement in the supply and distribution issues faced in 2021, we enter 2022 with confidence."

**31.49% growth in marketable database.  

27 January 2022

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About CMO

Founded in 2008 as Construction Materials Online, CMO is the UK's largest online-only retailer of building materials. The Group is disrupting a £27 billion predominantly offline market with a digital first proposition and market leading product choice, supported by high quality customer service and technical expertise. 

CMO has created category authority by offering market-leading ranges listing over 75,000 products through its eight specialist websites: cmotrade.co.uk, doorsuperstore.co.uk, drainagesuperstore.co.uk, insulationsuperstore.co.uk, jtmplumbing.co.uk, roofingsuperstore.co.uk, tileandfloorsuperstore.co.uk and totaltiles.co.uk.

Its unique digital hybrid service model, developed over more than 10 years, combines specialist advice and expertise tailored to category and customer needs online, to service the next generation of digital natives by bridging the gap between traditional bricks and mortar retailers and pureplay digital retailing. CMO has established trusted partnerships with manufacturers and supply partners across the UK. Its business model is asset light with the majority of products dropshipped directly from the manufacturers to its customers. CMO's aim is to revolutionise the shopping experience of homeowners and tradespeople to become the 'go to' digital retailer of building materials, providing market leading product choice, relevant help and advice, and a personalised customer experience.

Cautionary Statement

Certain statements in this trading update are forward-looking. Although the Group believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct. Because these statements contain risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.