Sales continue to grow for Angling Direct
Fishing tackle and equipment business Angling Direct is reeling in extra profits as people rush to the river bank following lockdown.
The West Midlands firm has seen sales continue to grow in the last three months.
For the first quarter of its financial year to the end of April sales were up 54 per cent on last year. Online sales rose by 42 per cent and sales in store grew by 75 per cent.
Fishing became more popular during the first lockdown last summer, when the weather was fine, and numbers have continued to increase.
Angling Direct operates online and also has shops in Halesowen and Willenhall.
Assuming no further lockdowns, the group says it is well placed to deliver profitable growth in revenue, but at a lower rate than the previous year as trading conditions and sales mix begin to normalise
The firm says it saw revenue grow 27.1 per cent to £67.6 million in the year to the end of January as more people turned to the hobby during the pandemic.
Online sales rose 39.9 per cent to £35.3m, with international sales accounting for 12.4 per cent of total online sales, and shop sales increased by 15.5 per cent to £32.3m, despite the impact of national lockdowns.
The group, founded in 1986, went from an annual loss of £1.5m to a pre-tax profit of £2.6m.
Angling Direct now has 38 shops with four opening in 2020-2021 in strategically located, high density fishing catchment areas. A further new store opened in Redditch in February.
Chief executive Andy Torrance said: “In a year characterised by the unique challenges associated with the pandemic, I am extremely proud of the way our people responded to help deliver such a strong group performance.
"We made great strides with our strategic and operational objectives, growing revenues both in the UK and key European territories, driving operational excellence across the business and delivering sustainable margin-accretive, profitable growth as part of our laser-focus on pricing and inventory management.
"As the health and wellbeing benefits of angling become more widely recognised and its popularity grows around the world, we are ideally positioned to fulfil our ambition of becoming Europe’s first choice omni-channel fishing tackle destination for all anglers, regardless of their experience or ability.
"Having reopened our stores on April 12 and with the UK emerging from the pandemic, I am cautiously optimistic when I look to the future: the strong foundations we have put in place through 2020 will ensure the group is able to take advantage of the numerous opportunities that will arise through the remainder of 2021 and beyond.”
