DFS Furniture temporarily shutters 181 showrooms

Retailer DFS Furniture said on Thursday that all of its physical showrooms in England, Wales and Ireland and Wales were now temporarily closed in light of increasing restrictions on the movement of people and trading activity.

DFS said 181 of 208 showrooms had been shuttered, with the 169 English locations set to reopen on 2 December, while its Welsh and Irish sites were set to resume trading on 9 November and 1 December, respectively.

However, the London-listed group highlighted that websites across all its brands and territories remained open for business and were said to be "performing well".

"Based on our previous experience of lockdown we expect our online business to improve further. This will be supported by the temporary transfer of showroom colleagues to other areas of the business, including remotely assisting customers with web purchases," said DFS.

"Given the current very strong order bank levels, and the delivery lead times we are therefore operating at, we do not expect that this period of showroom closure will materially impact revenues and profitability for the first 26 weeks to 27 December 2020."

DFS added that its balance sheet remained "robust", with the group having access to over £300.0m of available cash and undrawn bank facilities.

As of 1020 GMT, DFS shares had dipped 2.09% at 198.76p.