Furniture giant SCS sitting pretty after online boom

Sofa chain SCS has shrugged off a hit from its House of Fraser concessions and poor summer sales to post an 11% rise in annual profits.

The Sunderland-based retailer, which has an outlet at Kingsway Retail Park in Dundee, posted pre-tax profits of £13.2 million.

It also overcame a 2.6% slide in secondhalf sales caused by lower demand amid the heatwave and World Cup football tournament.

SCS said like-for-like orders rose 0.2% over the year as a whole.

It added that sales since the year-end had also picked up, rising by 2.1% on a like-for-like basis in the nine weeks to September 29.

The firm said its 27 concessions within struggling House of Fraser stores had a “particularly challenging year”, with gross sales in the division tumbling 9.4% to £24.8 million in the year to July 28.

It is in discussions with Sports Direct over the future of the concessions after Mike Ashley’s sportswear giant bought the department store out of administration.

David Knight, chief executive of SCS, said: “The downturn in sales in our House of Fraser concessions has been more than offset by growth in our core SCS business.

“This has been aided by record results from our online channel, which has seen a 22.6% increase in gross sales.”