Christmas ends pent-up demand for ScS
November 26, 2021
Earlier Christmas shopping has ended the pressure of pent-up demand for ScS as the furniture and flooring chain reported a 10% fall in orders this Autumn.
In a trading update to shareholders ahead of this afternoon's AGM, The Sunderland-based plc said: "The Group had a strong start to the year, resulting in two-year like-for-like order intake growth for the first nine weeks.
"However, over the last seven weeks, the Group has seen a reduction in store footfall and conversion with consumers spending less on big ticket discretionary purchases. This appears to be driven by a change in behaviour with consumers shopping earlier for Christmas when compared with previous years," it said.
ScS also said supply chain issues were also holding back growth: "The extended product lead times currently being experienced across the furniture and wider retail industry are also having an impact on current purchasing trends" and the company said it had partnered with new suppliers to improve the lead times.
At 20 November 2021, the Group's order book was £131.9m, £71.5m above the same point two years ago. The online business continues to perform well, with two-year like-for-like order growth for the first 16 weeks of the year of 38.5%.
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