Victoria Plum has seen record sales growth in its 20th anniversary year. The specialist bathroom pureplay says it was well-placed to benefit from the shift online that has taken place during a year of Covid-19 lockdowns and as more shoppers have made more of their purchases online.
The Doncaster-based retailer has reported sales of £103m in the year to February 28, 46% up on the previous year. At the same time, earnings before interest, tax and asset write downs (EBITDA) reached £4.5m, 115% up on the previous year – and its workforce grew to 398 from 349.
Victoria Plum chief executive Paul McClenaghan says: “We have an ambitious growth strategy, highly capable people throughout the company and a collective determination to further accelerate our rate of expansion. These latest record results validate our approach and provide us with the platform to progress our plans at pace.
“Elements of our results have benefited from the speeding up of the structural shift to online retail throughout 2020. However, we were constantly evolving Victoria Plum as a pureplay online retailer long before last year’s events happened and will continue to do so.”
Over the last year it has launched a bathroom design and installation service, and also taken the decision that many of its staff will continue to work remotely post-pandemic. Its offices in Doncaster and Hessle, East Yorkshire, are now hubs where people can work and meet as required, while its distribution and delivery staff still work from its distribution centre in Doncaster.
During the last financial year, Victoria Plum saw its website visitors grow by 165% to 23.2m, while online sessions grew by 194% to more than 51m.
Looking ahead, McClenaghan says: “We are confident that we will continue to grow at speed. Our market fundamentals are strong, we have the necessary scalable infrastructure in place and a clearly differentiated design and installation service that is experiencing rapidly increasing demand.
“In addition, the constant stream of valuable data and consumer insights we access and interpret enables us to quickly adapt our product offer to meet customers’ needs, keeping us ahead of the game. All this means we are ideally positioned to make Victoria Plum the most differentiated, most trusted and most respected bathroom provider.”
Victoria Plum this year moved into the RetailX Top500 – where it is ranked Top250. The retailer, founded in 2001, was bought by Leeds-based private equity fund Endless 18 months ago.
