Homewares retailer Dunelm Group PLC on Wednesday boosted its interim dividend by 17% and declared a special payout, following strong half-year results.

Dunelm will pay 14.0 pence per share for the six months that ended December 25, up from 12.0p a year before. It also will pay a special dividend of 37.0p, which the company said was ‘to return to leverage in line with published capital policy’.

The Syston, Leicestershire-based retailer said pretax profit in the half-year was £140.8 million, up 25% on £112.4 million a year before, on £795.6 million in revenue, up 11% on £719.4 million.

Gross margin improved by 80 basis points, the retailer said, due to higher full-price sales in the recent period and the comparison period being hurt by store lockdowns.

Trading so far in the second half has been ‘encouraging’, including the Winter Sale, Dunelm said.

Full-year pretax profit will be in line with recently upgraded consensus, the company said. It put this at £206 million, with a range of £198 million to £218 million. In the financial year that ended June 26, 2021, Dunelm reported pretax profit of £157.8 million, which was up from £109.1 million in financial 2020.

‘When we announced our interim results in 2020, we were weeks away from the world being turned upside down,’ said Chief Executive Officer Nick Wilkinson. ‘Two years later, we are moving forward as a bigger, better business, with more capability, more resilience, more ambition, and delivering accelerated growth.’

As shoppers return to physical stores, Dunelm said online sales as a percentage of total sales slipped to 33% in the recent half-year from 35% a year before and as high as 93% at the start of calendar 2021.

Dunelm shares were up 2.7% at 1,298.00 pence early Wednesday in London.

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