Revenue at Joules, the Market Harborough-based lifestyle group, is behind expectations, despite rising.
Group revenue for the 9 weeks to 30 January 2022 was up 31% against FY21 and 19% against FY20, however, this performance, along with the Group’s PBT performance over the same period, is behind the Board’s expectations.
The company has noted that this reflects weaker than expected revenue in January, in part as a result of the negative impact of the Omicron variant on retail footfall.
Joules has also pointed to delays to new stock arrivals as a result of global supply chain challenges, resulting in a lower full price sales mix, in turn impacting revenue and gross margin, as well as lower than expected wholesale revenue due to delayed stock and customer cancellations.
It has also highlighted the continued impact on gross margin of increases in freight, duties and distribution costs, and continued operational disruption, lower productivity, and higher than expected costs within the third-party operated Distribution Centre (DC) with costs for December and January £1.2m above expectations.
The news follows financial results for the six months ended 28th November 2021, which saw revenues of £127.9m (H1 FY2021: £95.4m) and PBT pre-adjusting items of £2.6m (FY 2021: £3.7m).
Joules added in a statement to the London Stock Exchange: “The Board’s base case expectation is for trading for the balance of the year to recover in line with its previously stated expectations, supported by recovering footfall and an improved level of newness in the stock position.
“The wholesale orderbook for Spring / Summer 22 remains strong and the DC operation is normalising with delivery times back to standard service levels and productivity improved. Assuming the Board’s base case is met, adjusted PBT for the full year is not expected to be less than £5.0m (FY 2021: £6.1m).”
