l{"id":1302018,"date":"2023-11-27T16:13:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T16:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businesstelegraph.co.uk\/mountain-warehouse-plans-spree-of-new-stores-after-returning-to-profit\/"},"modified":"2023-11-27T16:13:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T16:13:02","slug":"mountain-warehouse-plans-spree-of-new-stores-after-returning-to-profit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businesstelegraph.co.uk\/mountain-warehouse-plans-spree-of-new-stores-after-returning-to-profit\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Warehouse plans spree of new stores after returning to profit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- newscabal uk text -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8162386273903324\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3688094655\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=b8fff341-392f-4bba-9a81-a7643c40b660\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Mountain Warehouse has committed to an aggressive expansion of physical stores as it dismissed the death of the British high street and returned to profitability. <\/p>\n<p>The outdoor retailer said it planned to open 50 shops next year following record first-half sales figures, driven by customers returning to its already growing number of stores after the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>It opened 35 stores last year, taking its total to 370 across eight countries, and said on Monday that it would be opening a new shop every week in the run-up to Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite what you read about the death of the high street, there\u2019s a lot of life left,\u201d said Mark Neale, founder and chief executive.<\/p>\n<p>The retailer reported record sales of \u00a3171mn in the six months to the end of August and underlying profits of \u00a36.7mn as customers flocked back to physical shops, compared with an underlying loss of \u00a31.5mn for the financial year to February.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/571daa6b-2cf8-4b16-adc9-d1d74764e73b\" data-trackable=\"link\">Mountain Warehouse<\/a> reported the highest annual sales in its history last year but soaring freight and energy costs, which have now cooled, ate into its margins and left it with a loss. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think our freight bill went from roughly \u00a34mn a year up to \u00a320mn,\u201d said Neale, but added that those costs had come back down since.<\/p>\n<p>Two or three stores will be opened in Australia next year, adding to those it has in Europe, the US, Canada and New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>Private equity firm Inflexion, which also owns the Times Higher Education\u2019s rankings unit, bought a 20 per cent stake in Mountain Warehouse in 2018 for \u00a345mn, which Neale said at the time would \u201chelp turbo-charge our expansion plans, particularly overseas and online\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Acquiring larger stores, as well as more of them, has become part of Mountain Warehouse\u2019s strategy post-pandemic, which Neale said had been aided by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/015699a2-bbb0-4fc5-a4f8-47028de35ba9\" data-trackable=\"link\">closure of Topshop<\/a> and Wilko stores. The latter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/9f0308fd-027e-4005-8e32-a7042fa33f4b\" data-trackable=\"link\">collapsed earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got more stores coming, and bigger stores,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a number of shops that used to be Topshop that we\u2019ve opened this year, one which used to be the Topshop in Norwich and is now a top shop for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Larger stores became a target after Mountain Warehouse developed a much larger product range during the pandemic, when it was forced to shift to online sales only and was no longer constrained by the size of its shops.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve worked out now that we can actually expand our range in-store but we need the space to sell it,\u201d Neale said.<\/p>\n<p>Poor summer weather contributed to the group\u2019s robust first-half sales and profit figures, with the retailer selling 350,000 waterproof jackets in July and August alone.<\/p>\n<p>Mountain Warehouse said Black Friday weekend had seen a record return of shoppers. The company had its \u201cbusiest Black Friday weekend ever, with sales of more than \u00a310mn and more than a million people visiting our stores,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>Neale said the annual figures looked brighter because of those sales: \u201cIf I was talking to you on Friday morning, I\u2019d be less confident than I am now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\"\r\n     data-ad-layout=\"in-article\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8162386273903324\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7859258044\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/b8fff341-392f-4bba-9a81-a7643c40b660\">READ SOURCE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Mountain Warehouse has committed to an aggressive expansion of physical stores as it dismissed the death of the British high street and returned to profitability. The outdoor retailer said it planned to open 50 shops [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oct_exclude_from_cache":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1302018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mountain Warehouse plans spree of new stores after returning to profit - Business Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/b8fff341-392f-4bba-9a81-a7643c40b660\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mountain Warehouse plans spree of new stores after returning to profit - Business Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. 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The outdoor retailer said it planned to open 50 shops [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/b8fff341-392f-4bba-9a81-a7643c40b660\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Business Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-27T16:13:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"businesstelegraph\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"businesstelegraph\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/b8fff341-392f-4bba-9a81-a7643c40b660#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.businesstelegraph.co.uk\/mountain-warehouse-plans-spree-of-new-stores-after-returning-to-profit\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"businesstelegraph\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.businesstelegraph.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/0a3a6a0f58402f1f2af94e02d0987b78\"},\"headline\":\"Mountain Warehouse plans spree of new stores after returning to profit\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-27T16:13:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-27T16:13:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.businesstelegraph.co.uk\/mountain-warehouse-plans-spree-of-new-stores-after-returning-to-profit\/\"},\"wordCount\":550,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.businesstelegraph.co.uk\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Retail\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.businesstelegraph.co.uk\/mountain-warehouse-plans-spree-of-new-stores-after-returning-to-profit\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/b8fff341-392f-4bba-9a81-a7643c40b660\",\"name\":\"Mountain Warehouse plans spree of new stores after returning to profit - 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