The Dunelm Group Board has proposed a final ordinary dividend of 27 pence per share, reflecting their strong profitability and ongoing confidence in the business. This brings the full-year ordinary dividend to 42 pence per share, an increase of 5% and within the range of 1.75x to 2.25x dividend cover stated in their capital and dividend policy. They also paid a special dividend of 40 pence per share in April. In all, they returned £163m of cash in dividends during the year.
Other financial highlights include:
Record sales of £1.64bn (FY22: £1.55bn)
50.1% gross margin (FY22: 51.2%), in line with expectations, demonstrating tight operational grip
Continued to focus on growth, investing more than £20m in digitalising their end-to-end operations and growing capability to seize multiple future opportunities
Profit before tax ("PBT") of £193m (FY22: £209m), reflecting tight control of margin amidst inflation
£160m free cash flow (FY22: £153m), with strong conversion of operating profit to cash of 81% (FY22: 70%)
£163m in total returned to shareholders during the year, including special dividend of 40p declared with the interim results and paid in April. Over £1bn returned over the past ten years
