DFS has posted a surge in profits and sales as its acquisition of Sofology swelled its half-year figures.

The furniture specialist said pre-tax profit more than doubled from £6.2m to £14.1m in the 22 weeks to December 30, 2018. EBITDA jumped 41.9% to £31.5m.

DFS said that, after adjusting the results on a pro-forma basis to also include the results of Sofology in the comparative period, EBITDA was up 23.8% to £32.8m and underlying profit before tax and amortisation rocketed 83.9% to £16m.

Group revenues climbed 29.1% year-on-year to £422.3m. Adjusting to include the impact of the Sofology acquisition, revenue was up 9.9% as DFS hailed like-for-like growth across all of its brands, which also include Dwell and Sofa Workshop.

Like-for-like revenues across the group were up 6.6% during the period. Its online channels performed “strongly”, registering 22.6% sales growth.

DFS boss Tim Stacey, who took the reins from Ian Filby last autumn, said he was “pleased” with performance during the first half, but warned the business had experienced “a softer start to 2019”.

He said: “The benefits of our investments in our online channels, delivery networks and the development of our brands help mitigate the impact of a market which we expect to remain particularly challenging in 2019 given the current political and economic uncertainty.

“Notwithstanding a softer start to 2019, and assuming no weakening of this environment, our profit expectations for the financial year remain unchanged.”