Tapi Carpets & Floors Close To Achieving £100m Turnover

Carpet and floorcoverings retailer Tapi has reported on trading for the year ended 28th December 2019.

Highlights:

• Revenues for 2020 expected to be in excess of £100m (2019: £97m)
• Sales growth of 30% year-on-year in H2 2020 driven by digital initiatives and a strong homewares market 
• Created over 100 new jobs in 2020 across the business
• Expect maiden EBITDA profit of approximately £1m in 2020 (2019: EBITDA loss of £10.2m)
• Strong Balance Sheet at the end of 2020 with a growing double digit cash balance and no debt
• Confident in making further progress in 2021 towards the goal of becoming the UK market leader

2020 – Accelerating digital transformation

Tapi responded quickly to the pandemic and the lockdowns, which have resulted in store closures for over a quarter of the financial year, accelerating its digital investment strategy that commenced in 2019. The mobile showroom fleet has grown in the year by nearly 40% to almost 100, with video appointments introduced from June. New facilities for customers to request samples online and obtain quotes were also introduced in the year. These initiatives are all underpinned by Tapi’s new augmented reality ‘picture it’ functionality, which allows customers to see potential floor options on a photo of their room on their phone or tablet.

The benefits of the digital initiatives started to come through from May but really accelerated in the second half of the year, resulting in an H2 year-on-year increase of 300% in web traffic and a 500% increase in customers acquired from digital channels. Combined these initiatives were the key driver of the 30%+ revenue growth achieved in H2 and the move into profitability. Tapi expects 2020 revenues to exceed over £100m for the first time, and to report a maiden EBITDA profit of approximately £1m, which represents an improvement of over £11m on the performance for 2019.

The physical estate has now grown to 145 stores spanning the length and breadth of the UK, having upsized two standalone units and added 10 Homebase concessions during the year. Tapi will continue to open new stores in 2021 where there is both a strategic need and commercially viable terms, which make a break from the inflexible, long term upward only rent reviews of the past. While many of Tapi’s landlords have shown great flexibility this year, others remain wedded to the old model of inflated rents that have become increasingly disconnected from the economic benefits they confer and can no longer be justified.

James Sturrock, CEO of Tapi Carpets & Floors, said: “Our strategic focus on digitalising the business and providing a seamless customer experience both online and across our growing nationwide store estate has powered our growth in 2020 and an expected maiden EBITDA profit. I could not be prouder of all of our colleagues for their commitment to the business and to our customers throughout the most challenging year that many of us have ever faced in business. We are cautious about the first half of 2021 in light of the ever-changing face of the Covid19 pandemic but confident in the outlook for the full year. Our investments in digital innovation, our strong Balance Sheet and supportive investors, along with a bolstering of the senior team and Board of Directors2 , give the Board confidence that further profitable progress will continue to be made on the way to our goal of becoming the UK market leader.”

Source : Tapi

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