DFS has reported big slump in profits. The Sofa retailer has admitted to the “most operationally challenging year” it can remember with the industry-wide issues of Covid-related supply issues, double digit cost inflation and skill shortages sending annual pre-tax profit falling by 44.8%.
Moreover, the company warned that the industry is facing a downturn as soaring bills mean fewer customers are in the market for a new sofa.
DFS said pre-tax profit dropped 43 per cent to £58.5m in the financial year that ended in June.
Order numbers “softened markedly” in the last three months of that period as the cost-of-living crisis weighs on customers.
DFS faced several different issues fed in part by the pandemic, Brexit and the war in Ukraine.
In July DFS, lost its head of finance and former UBS and Citi senior executive Mike Schmidt to value high-street retailer B&M. The company is still understood to be searching for a successor.
