Joules first half revenues rise 35 percent

In its half-yearly statement, Joules Group said strong customer demand for the company’s products drove revenue by 35 percent or 24 percent excluding Garden Trading to approximately 128 million pounds. This performance, the company added, reflects continued growth in active customers to 1.9 million alongside the strength of the group’s flexible model.

Commenting on the half year trading update, Nick Jones, chief executive officer of Joules, said: “Joules has achieved good revenue growth against the prior two comparative periods reflecting the strength of the group’s flexible model and despite a challenging external trading environment.”

Joules store revenues jump compared to last year

Joules’ stores revenue was up 80 percent against the prior year. Store revenue was just 3 percent behind the comparable pre-pandemic period two years ago despite lower high-street footfall. E-commerce grew 14 percent and 54 percent on a two-year basis, benefitting from the acquisition of Garden Trading and the performance of third-party e-commerce partners.

Garden Trading revenues increased 4 percent year-on-year and 77 percent on a two-year basis despite global supply chain disruption.

Wholesale revenue, excluding Garden Trading, increased 16 percent reflecting the reopening of the group’s wholesale partners in the UK and internationally. However, revenue remained significantly down on a two-year basis, in part due to the supply chain challenges. The Board anticipates a strong H2 wholesale performance benefitting from dispatches delayed from H1 as well as a stronger orderbook for Spring/Summer 22.

Considering the global supply chain issues that resulted in some higher costs and stock delays during the period, labour shortages in the company’s third-party operated distribution centre and weaker year on year online traffic, Joules expects group’s profit before tax and adjusting items to be in the range of 2 million pounds to 2.5 million pounds compared to 3.7 million pounds in FY21.

The board is confident that the group will achieve continued strong revenue growth in H2 and an improved profit performance. Nevertheless, full year profit before tax and adjusting items is now expected to be below current market expectations and in the region of 9 million pounds to 12 million pounds.