Flying high: Angling Direct hooks in revenues as physical stores prove to be a big catch
Angling Direct reeled in a sharp rise in turnover over the first half of 2018, amid burgeoning sales that were bolstered by European expansion and UK store growth.
The group today posted a 55 per cent rise in revenue in the first six months of the year, jumping to £21.9m, on the back of a 60 per cent increase in both online and stores sales.
“Results are very good but they could have been better if it hadn’t been for the extended winter. That said, we’re bucking the general retail trend. Both online and store sites can work well if you market both of them off of each other,” according to chairman Martyn Page.
However, Page added: “The average age of an angler is 47, and that’s an age we’d like to see come down. From the recruitment point of view it is fairly flat – there are not enough new anglers coming into the sport.”
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The group has embarked on a consolidation strategy in the last several years, acquiring a number of its UK competitors to strengthen its core UK market.
Page said that the company had an advantage over its rivals as “most of our competitors are cash-strapped, old-style, non-professional, and as such they came out of the winter short of cash and short of sales.”
The firm said it remained on track to meet full-year expectations.