Mountain Warehouse shrugs off retail gloom, posts record festive sales

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jan 21, 2019

Mountain Warehouse is forecasting record annual profits after seeing sales rise 12% to £84.7m in the 13 weeks to 6 January.

The results are particularly impressive given that the prior year’s sales had been strongly boosted by a cold wave, and make the sports and outerwear retailer a bright spot amid extremely tough conditions on the UK high street.

In a statement released on Monday the UK company also celebrated a record surge in Black Friday sales, up 20% year-on-year aided by a 47% rise in online revenue. On Black Friday, online sales surpassed the £1m mark for the first time in the firm’s 21-year history.

“The business is continuing to perform strongly despite the economic backdrop,” CEO and founder Mark Neale commented.

“The prior year’s performance was exceptional due to the cold weather and widespread snow we saw in the run up to Christmas 2017. I’m therefore really pleased to report this record performance despite the unusually mild weather we experienced. This puts us well on course for another record year and as a result we are continuing to invest in more stores, new territories and our online business.”

Going against the market trend, the company is planning to open 60 new stores over the next 18 months to have 400 sites in total. During the 13 weeks ended 6 January, it opened new stores in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Canada.