A handicraft retail chain plans to open three more stores after a surge in profits last year.
New Hobbycraft locations are in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire; Southend in Essex; and Bromborough on Merseyside and will create 40 new retail jobs.
Adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to February 2022 was £15m, up from £13.8m a year earlier.
The company is “incredibly well positioned”, but the 2023 financial year will be “challenging”.
Hobbycraft chief executive Dominic Jordan said that “several new initiatives” are planned, including a new website, workshop channel, more new stores and a subscription model.
“However, we recognize that the year ahead will be very challenging, particularly given the significant inflationary pressures on our customers, and we see this impact on market demand as we enter full-year 2023,” he said.
He added that freight costs had increased significantly.
Established in 1995 and now with more than 100 stores across the UK, the company said total sales rose by 14.8% from £176.9m in 2021 to £203.1m in 2022.
The business was forced to close for seven weeks in 2021 during Covid restrictions as it was not classified as an essential retailer.
E-commerce sales have increased by 58.2% since point stores reopened in April 2021 compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2020.
Over the year to February 2022, seven new stores and 100 new jobs were created, including openings in Leicester, Rochester in Kent and Boucher Crescent in Northern Ireland.
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