Eve Sleep first half sales boosted by rebuild strategy
Mattress and bed retailer Eve Sleep saw its revenue increase by 13% to £13.9 million in the first half of its financial year as it began reaping the benefits of its rebuild strategy.
In the six months to 30 June, UK and Ireland revenue climbed by 19% year-on year and by 15% compared to the same period in 2019,
Average order value in the UK grew by 31% as customers increasingly added items such as furniture, bedding and weighted blankets to their mattress purchases. The company said a widened product range had been a key contributing factor in its sales growth.
However, sales in France declined by 8% year-on-year due to the company committing minimal marketing spend in the country in its first quarter ahead of the introduction of a new campaign and Covid related retail partner store closures.
The company said marketing investment across the business was first half weighted.
Despite the sales uplift, Eve Sleep’s losses widened to £2.3 million from a loss of £1.3 million in the same period last year.
Cheryl Calverley, chief executive of Eve Sleep, said: “We are starting to reap the benefits of our three year rebuild strategy. The ongoing expansion of the product ranges is gaining traction, with new accessory ranges driving growth in customer numbers, customer repeats and average spend through the year. This gives us increasing confidence for the full year outturn for the UK&I, which we expect to generate a healthy profit pre-overheads for the second consecutive year.”
Giving an update on current trading, Eve Sleep said group revenues in July and August edged up 1% year-on-year against very strong comparatives and grew by 26% on 2019 pre-Covid equivalents. Meanwhile, UK and Ireland revenue increased ahead of expectations at 46% on the same period two years ago.
Calverley added: “Our focus for the next 12-18 months is on delivering a core UK business that is both growing and sustainably profitable, whilst building our scale in France to generate a similarly accretive business there in the medium term. To achieve these growth objectives we continue to expand our sleep wellness offering with a strong pipeline of new products for the second half of the year, alongside the launch of our personalised sleep content engine, which will serve information to customers on a wide range of sleep related topics, further creating a differentiated business which meets a fundamental and growing customer need and derives as a result improving profitability.”
