Mountain Warehouse autumn and Christmas sales rise strongly

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 6, 2020

The autumn season and Christmas may have proved to be a disappointment for many retailers, but Mountain Warehouse was one that managed to come out on top with its Black Friday strength continuing into December.

The company said that total sales rose 16.2% to £95.8 million in the 13 weeks to December 29. Its online ops were the strongest part of the business during the Christmas quarter with a 21.6% surge over the period.

As mentioned, the last month leading up to Christmas started well with Black Friday itself seeing its highest single-day sales of the year at £2.5 million.

And that, plus the generally good festive season, means it’s set to see record profits for its full financial year. The company also said it was the 22nd consecutive year in which its Christmas trading hit record levels.

And it wasn’t only the Mountain Warehouse brand that was strong with its gift and stationery chain Neon Sheep also surging ahead. Although smaller than the 400-store Mountain Warehouse, Neon Sheep is growing fast and doubled its festive period sales. It’s planning to add 10 more stores to its existing total of 25 this year.

In fact, despite the strength of the firm’s webstore, physical stores remain key to its ‘bricks and clicks’ strategy and CEO Mark Neale said he’s continuing to back the high street. He believes that the right locations and “the right products at the right price”, plus good service, means physical shops do have a future.