Dunelm set itself a £2 billion sales target on Wednesday as the homewares retailer sought to move on from the shock exit of boss John Browett.
Chairman Andy Harrison, who is in temporary charge, hopes last year’s acquisition of online retailer Worldstores will become the springboard to double sales over “the medium term”.
The shares jumped 6% to 649.4p as Dunelm also said recent trading had been encouraging, with wet weather driving more shoppers to its stores.
Less than 10% of sales are online, but with Worldstores adding brands including luxury homewares specialist Achica and children’s retailer Kiddicare, the company hopes to increase this to as much as 40%.
Harrison gave no update on his search for a successor to former Apple executive Browett, who left last month after two years.
Today’s annual results were skewed by loss-making Worldstores, with acquisition costs of £28 million causing underlying profits to fall 15% to £109.3 million in the year to July.
Same-store sales were 0.5% off, but online sales surged 23.5% and total sales rose 8.5% to £955.6 million.
