DFS has appointed a new chief financial officer and upgraded its full-year profit outlook after delivering a strong financial performance during the first half.
The sofa specialist said former Amazon executive Dominique Highfield will join the company in May as its new finance boss.
Highfield is the current CFO of flower delivery company Bloom & Wild. She has previously held operational and financial roles at Purple Bricks, Pentland and Amazon.
The appointment comes as DFS reported it had delivered a strong financial performance during its first half, with group pre-tax profit expected to be between £30m and £31m, marking an increase of £13m and £14m.
Group order intake during the period was up 2.3% and gross sales, recognised on delivery of orders to customers, are expected to have increased 8.7%.
DFS said its important winter sale trading period had started “in line with our expectations”.
As a result of the positive performance and current trading, the retailer now expects its full-year pre-tax profit to be between £43m and £50m. This is above the current consensus of £41m.
DFS Group chief executive Tim Stacey said: “Our three key enablers of scale and vertical integration, utilising data and harnessing our unique culture, are strengthening our market-leading proposition and driving order intake across both DFS and Sofology in a broadly flat market.
“We have continued to make good progress growing our gross margins and managing our cost base effectively. As a result, I am pleased to report an upgrade to our full-year profit expectations following a strong first half performance.
“I am confident that the business is well positioned to continue delivering against our strategy and we remain committed to achieving our medium term targets of £1.4bn revenue and 8% PBT margin and delivering attractive returns for our shareholders as the market recovers.”
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