Eve Sleep losses grow as it invests in expansion, but sales jump

Losses at Eve Sleep grew in the first half even as sales surged as the company - which floated on AIM in May - invested in its expansion and brand awareness.

In the six months to the end of June, the group's statutory pre-tax loss came in at £9.1m, up from £3.2m the year before, but revenue jumped 126% to £11.5m. Revenue in the UK was up 107%, while international revenue increased 153%.

Unprompted brand awareness in the UK, which stood at 1.4% in December 2016, rose to 3.6% in March 2017 and by June had risen to 4.1%. It is now at 5.4%, making Eve the eighth most recalled mattress brand in the UK, ahead of Ikea. Meanwhile, in France, unprompted awareness has tripled since May to 3%, putting eve in the top 10 most recalled mattress brands.

During the period, the company launched in nine new territories, taking the total number of countries to 15.

Chief executive officer Jas Bagniewski said: "Our maiden results as a listed company demonstrate extensive strategic progress and strong trading momentum. In tandem with the topline growth, the benefits of scale are starting to come through with improving cost metrics, particularly in the more established UK business.

"The substantial uplift in brand awareness and the improved performance on Google search in the period, both absolute and relative to our competitors, will be boosted in the second half by our new TV campaign, which launched in the UK, France and Germany in August. This will be further enhanced by our recent retail partnerships with Next Home and Karstadt, which, in addition to increasing brand awareness, provides a nationwide network of high quality outlets for those customers who still prefer to try before you buy, in Europe's two largest mattress markets."

Eve said momentum has continued into the second half, with underlying revenue growth up 129% year-on-year.

At 1240 BST, the shares were down 1.2% to 80p.