Furniture retailer DFS has reported a fall in revenues in the half-year to 29 July due to “significant declines in store footfall”.
Revenues in the first half of the year fell 4%, which the company said was “weaker than expected.”
The group said its customer distribution centre programme, which consolidates warehouse space from retail stores into larger purpose-built off-site facilities, was proceeding to plan. Once complete, there will be a total of 19 centres in the UK.
The freed-up store warehouse space will be used to open a further five Dwell and five Sofa Workshop co-located stores over the next six months.
DFS is also opening new 10-15,000 sq ft DFS shops in the UK and Ireland, including in Ashford, Kent, in April 2017.
Its pipeline for the new financial year includes new stores in Wednesbury, Rugby and Haverfordwest, together with the refurbishmen of the DFS store in Croydon.
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