Dunelm sales jump 9% in first quarter

Homeware retailer Dunelm posted a 9% jump in first-quarter sales on Thursday, largely driven by volume.

In the 13 weeks to 30 September, sales rose to £390m, with both stores and digital channels performing well.

Dunelm said growth was broad based across categories, with the new autumn/winter ranges, including new collaborations with Disney and the Natural History Museum, resonating well with customers. The upholstery ranges also performed strongly, it said, with good growth in sofas and sofa beds, where it has added new shapes and colours to its best-selling ranges.

The group said it was on track with its accelerated store roll-out plan of five to ten stores per year for the next two years, with one new store opened in the first quarter and a further three expected to open before the end of the second.

Chief executive Nick Wilkinson said: "Our proposition, which offers an increasingly wide range of homewares products, continues to prove popular with customers, as we delivered another strong sales performance in Q1.

"We are reaching more and more UK consumers through our expanding store estate, and our latest marketing campaign, which is our biggest to date, showcases the breadth of the Dunelm offer, reinforcing our position as 'The Home of Homes'."