Theo Paphitis Retail Group benefits from resurgence in store performance
Theo Paphitis Retail Group benefited from a resurgence in its store performance in the run-up to Christmas with growth across all brands.
In the six weeks to 24 December, the group posted total sales level with 2021 with the performance made up of 5.5% growth in stores and a 9.7% decline online. Store sales as a share of total business increased from 62.2% to 65.8%.
The group said its shops performed particularly well in the ‘second half’ of the Christmas trading period as customers returned to bricks-and-mortar shopping following the pandemic.
While Ryman and Boux Avenue stores achieved uplifts of 7.2% and 1.8% respectively, London Graphic Centre reported overall growth of 23.1%.
Meanwhile Robert Dyas posted growth of 5.3% following sales increases both in-store and online. Energy saving products like air fryers, portable heaters and heated airers were particularly popular with customers.
Financial statements for the year ended March 2022 show that Boux Avenue saw a 43.2% increase in turnover to £67.1 million. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, the rise was 56.2%. Furthermore, the retailer made an EBITDA loss of £0.3 million, which was a significant improvement on the previous year.
Ryman returned to profitability following the impact of the pandemic on its key customer groups and some store locations in places like city centres. Turnover increased by 40.8% to £102.8 million which resulted in an EBITDA profit of £1.3 million compared to the previous year’s loss of £8.5 million.
Meanwhile Robert Dyas posted growth across stores and online which meant turnover rose by 34.4% to £164.6 million in the year. The retailer also posted an EBITDA profit of £2.5 million versus a loss of £700,000 a year earlier.
Theo Paphitis, chairman of Ryman, Robert Dyas and Boux Avenue, said: “There is no doubt that the resilience and creativity of retail has been significantly tested over the last three years. I am, therefore, pleased with how our brands and colleagues have responded to the challenges of the pandemic which was closely followed by other significant negative economic and political factors in 2022.
“We saw a recovery in turnover and profit across all of our brands in the financial year to March 2022, as our customers returned to stores and we were pleasantly surprised to see more of a swing to this channel than expected. Although this seems to have been a market wide trend out of the pandemic, I also credit our colleagues serving our customers over the years for making our stores a retail destination for receiving both great products and service.”
Looking ahead, he added: “Whilst we expect the headwinds caused by the global economic and political environment to make 2023 another challenging year, we have seen through previous difficult trading periods that customers still respond to retailers providing the right products, convenience and service. It may well be argued that, with a combined history of 280 years, Ryman and Robert Dyas have experienced almost everything that can be thrown at business and retail!”
