In line with the latest UK Government restrictions on non-essential retail, the Group’s retail stores in England are now closed during the four-week national lockdown until 2 December 2020. Joules intends to place all store colleagues in England on furlough during this period of closure.

The Group currently anticipates that its stores in Wales will re-open on 9 November 2020 following a two-week lockdown. Joules stores across Scotland and Northern Ireland, meanwhile, remain open.

Having completed several capacity and efficiency enhancements within the Group’s UK warehouse during 2020, the Board believes Joules remains well-positioned to satisfy higher anticipated online demand.

Current trading

The encouraging trends in the Group’s trading update on 23 September 2020 have continued, with sales for the Period remaining ahead of the Board’s expectations. Strong year-on-year ecommerce growth of 35% is driving this. In fact, ecommerce revenue accounts for 70% of the Group’s retail sales in the Period.

Furthermore, the Group’s stores performed ahead of the Board’s expectations during the Period; sales since the re-opening of Joules stores in July are down by 18% year-on-year. Joules’ wholesale and international sales have also performed in line with expectations over this Period.

The Group’s active customer base has now grown to 1.5 million

‘New to brand’ customer growth has been particularly strong in recent months. Joules attributes this to focused digital marketing investment; the positive impact of the Friends of Joules digital marketplace; and the desirable lifestyle locations of many of its stores.

The Group’s balance sheet remains strong with net cash of £9.4 million and liquidity headroom of £57 million on 1 November 2020. As a result of Joules’ continued momentum, and notwithstanding the significant levels of uncertainty as the Group enters the critical peak trading season, the Board believes Joules remains on track to deliver its expectations for the FY21 financial year.

Commenting is Nick Jones, CEO of Joules

“As we enter the peak trading season, the retail sector in England faces the challenge of having to close non-essential stores for the next four weeks. Despite this difficult backdrop, Joules has a very strong brand and a flexible business model. This has underpinned the Group’s robust performance to date during Covid-19. In addition, we are well-positioned from an operations and financial perspective; having built on the experience and lessons from the Spring lockdown.

“Our AW20 collections have been well received by customers and our Friends of Joules digital marketplace continues to deliver growth ahead of our expectations. As a result, we enter the peak trading period in a strong position. Our ecommerce business now represents 70% of our retail sales. We have made significant investments in capacity to ensure that we can continue to drive and satisfy demand through this increasingly important channel as we adapt to changing consumer behaviours.

“I would again like to thank all of Joules’ stakeholders, but particularly our colleagues, for their continued flexibility, loyalty and dedication through this very challenging period.”