Marks Electrical hails strong start to year despite difficult backdrop

Marks Electrical reported a jump in revenues on Thursday as the online electricals retailer hailed "strong" trading in the four months to the end of July.

Revenues grew 13.7% on the year to £27.7m against "a particularly challenging" market backdrop, it said.

Marks hailed an especially strong performance in televisions, vacuum cleaners, washers & dryers, and air conditioning.

Chief executive Mark Smithson said: "We've seen strong competitive activity both in pricing and marketing, with heavy discounting of headline prices and higher cost per click marketing expenses.

"Despite this, we have maintained our tight control on inventory, cost management and disciplined capital allocation, ensuring we are in a healthy cash position and remaining focused on profitable market share gains.

"Whilst the remainder of the year is difficult to predict, our focus on maintaining a market leading customer proposition and healthy cash flow provides us with the best platform to generate continued profitable market share growth."