Fortnum & Mason expects to have its best ever Christmas after website sales helped annual revenues and profit hit a record.
The upmarket department store group, founded 308 years ago, reported sales up 19% to £88m for the year to the end of July. Pre-tax profit jumped 31% from a year earlier to £5m.
Online sales rose by 22%, helped by a revamped website, and a store at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 has traded better than expected, Fortnum said. Sales at stores open a year or more – including Fortnum’s flagship site on London’s Piccadilly – rose 13%.
Fortnum said it expected sales of hampers and food to push sales at Christmas – traditionally its strongest trading period – to a record.
The group, owned by the Weston family that controls Associated British Foods, has branched out from its Piccadilly base to capitalise on demand for posh gifts and food. It opened a shop at London’s St Pancras station in 2013 and a store in Dubai last year, followed by the Heathrow store and bar.
Kate Hobhouse, chair of Fortnum, said: “We are delighted with these figures, which are the reward for the programme of enhancements we have brought to the brand during the year. We’re now focused on Christmas and all the signs suggest we are going to have our best festive season on record. I am confident that the upward trajectory of our business will continue.”
