Joules seems happy with its progress in the year to the end of May, despite the impact of the pandemic. The company said on Wednesday that it saw continued strong digital momentum and that since reopening in April, store sales have been ahead of expectations.
The fashion and lifestyle retailer said revenue in the 12 months rose 4% to £199 million, even with the “significant challenges” that it faced during the financial year. That performance mainly reflected the strength of its digital offer and a higher number of active customers, as well as a positive contribution from the Garden Trading Company that it bought in February.
The group’retail revenue rose 9% during the year as its own digital channels boomed and its Friends of Joules online marketplace was also strong. Factoring out third-party websites, online sales rose 48% through its own channels.
Physical stores were clearly unable to match that kind of performance given the long periods of temporary closure they had to go through and they fell 41% year-on-year.
