Homewares retailer Dunelm today released strong sales growth results for July and August. Emily Stella, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view on this news:

“Over lockdown, Dunelm lost circa 0.7 percentage points of homewares market share compared with the same quarter last year. This was as competitors, namely value general merchandisers and grocers, remained open and accessible over the period. Dunelm’s loss was unfortunate, but inevitable.

“But today, the retailer has reported strong sales growth of 59% and 24% for July and August respectively. This growth reflects the release of pent-up demand over lockdown and the timing of its summer sale. Such strong growth will not be the norm for the rest of the year as consumer demand softens somewhat, but Dunelm’s store locations in open-space retail parks, and strength online mean the retailer will regain some, if not most, of its lost market share by the end of the year.”