Finance
DFS Furniture sees half-year profit nearly doubling on cost savings, order uptick
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 17, 2025
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Global Banking and Finance Review is an online platform offering news, analysis, and opinion on the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the banking and finance industry worldwide. The platform covers a diverse range of topics, including banking, insurance, investment, wealth management, fintech, and regulatory issues. The website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website.
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 17, 2025
(Reuters) -DFS Furniture said on Friday that it expects its second-half profit growth for fiscal 2025 to be lower than the first half while maintaining a cautious outlook, sending the British retailer's shares down almost 3% in morning trade.
DFS estimates its first-half profits to have surged as much as 95%, partly due to gains in market share from disruptions at a competitor.
However, the Doncaster-based company anticipates these gains to partially reverse in the second half on rising operating costs resulting from the measures implemented in the UK October 2024 budget.
The budget introduced hikes in employer social security contributions and minimum wages, which are expected to weigh down the furniture retailer's growth in the latter part of the fiscal year.
"We are cautiously optimistic despite the increased inflationary pressures and less positive market outlook for 2025," CEO Tim Stacey said in a statement.
DFS said that it still expects its full-year profit to grow in line with company-compiled analysts' consensus of 22 million pounds ($26.82 million).
The furniture retailer expects profit before tax and brand amortisation for the first half to be between 16 million and 17 million pounds, compared with 8.7 million pounds a year ago.
"While H1 had no 'tailwinds' given the market was down 5%, certain factors that helped DFS' outperformance may not recur in H2," analysts at Peel Hunt said.
($1 = 0.8201 pounds)
(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Vijay Kishore)