Dunelm plans £100 million cuts to boost productivity

Homeware retailer Dunelm plans to strip around £100 million of “unproductive” costs from operations amid a three-year growth strategy.

The cost-cutting programme will include restructuring and internal process changes up to the 2029 financial year.

The firm says work is already underway with about 95 support function and distribution jobs shed to “simplify the business and reduce central costs”.

Bosses say “further targeted cost removal” from restructuring over the next three years will deliver around £40 million of the annual cost savings.

The three-year strategy also includes efforts to improve and simplify the retailer’s product ranges, renew its chain of shops and open new ones.

Dunelm says it is targeting around 100 potential locations for new stores, with up to ten openings per year for the next three years and each outlet creating about 50 jobs.

The plans were unveiled after Dunelm said trading had been dampened because of unusually hot weather since the new financial year that began at the end of June.

The retailer said it was continuing to see “challenging” conditions weigh on consumer confidence, including “elevated interest rates, inflation and a changing UK political landscape”.

Nevertheless, the company reported total sales of £1.83 billion for the year to June 27, up 3.1 per cent compared with the year before.

Pre-tax profit was flat year-on-year at £211 million.

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